Casper chuckle evilly and renews his best gnoll impression.
Lupe rolled heals last time in case we left combat. Lupe will pick up the body and Wolf will start to move them toward the group.
"Lupe, how goes your chase?"
Vulpina lashes out once more!
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"I got it. I did not let it get away. I think it is even still alive."
[dice=Damage]1d6
Well, it would have except that it is currently suffering from an ill omen and has an AC of 11 as a result. Thus, as another result, her Wakizashi does 3 more damage - not quite enough to drop it unless the weapon is cold iron. HP are at 1/6. If Rahella can do 1 point of damage (after DR) it will collapse when it heads for the forest. Otherwise it escapes!
Rahella was not about to let the last pugwampi run and quickly sent a jet of acid at it.
Unfortunately yet another cactus jumped between her acid and the pugwampi taking the full hit for the creature and dissolving into acrid goo!
Indeed, the squealing and maniacal being dashes into the cactus, unhindered by the very thorns that left to rest of you chewed up. On the bright side, it showed no signs of slowing down and one could assume that it will not be returning for its supper. Which leaves the wild eyed goat to deal with. You know, the one tied up nest to a nasty looking plunge into thorny oblivion. What do you do?
Try to untie it? Cut the rope? Shoot it and have dinner?
Sarona moves to help the goat.
"Brute force or gentle coaxing?" Vulpina ponders aloud, sheathing her weapons and tapping her chin. "I do not know that we are particularly good with animals... but I doubt we want to drag this creature the whole way back."
Rahella considered the agitated goat and what could be done to bring it out safely. They needed to calm it down but she had no clue how, none of her spells would work and she had no real talent with animals. Truthfully she had no end of troubles with animals but she had an idea of what she could try.
Rahella remembered a song her mother sang her to quiet her fears and, while she didn't remember the words she did know the tune by heart. She began to hum the tune, an old one, likely her Mother's land of Osirian, as she tried to calm the goat.
An interesting approach but as a former owner of goats I know singing ain't gonna work.
Lady Vulpina muses while Sarona approaches. The goat is pretty frantic and is rushing all over the place. How close does Sarona get? It has some gnarly looking horns.
Meanwhile Casper hears the sounds of combat come to a cease and furious screeching making it say through the cactus forest away from everyone.
Rahella was displeased about the fact her song didn't work but then what did she know about goats anyway? She considered carefully what to do as she watched the goat dashing back and forth.
Sadly she was too leery of getting close to the madly dashing goat for fear of the horns.
Lupe pulls out food. "Here little guy. Let's get somewhere safe."
Seeing some of the group stay back away from the goat, Katsumi quietly added "He is just afraid of us. I do not think he is violent." He knew Lupe was better at calming creatures than he was, so instead he edged around the creature, position himself between him and the edge of the cliff in case in his fear he lost his footing and accidentally fell off.
"Ah, I suppose that is fair enough," says Vulpina, stepping back to try to give it both a path to safety and some distance.
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Goats do, on the other hand, have quite the passion for food. Lupe is able to get the goat to calm down and slurp up the candy offered to it. And come looking for more.
One last challenge here. You have a severely wounded goat and a forest of Cactus to return through. Not to mention your own conditions. Not a good combination.
Sarona pauses as Lupe feeds the goat to calm it down.
"Could we simply hack our way through the cacti?"
"We might wrap the goat in something," she offers. "So that it does not bleed to death on a cactus, you see."
Considering their plight now that the goat is calmed down Rahella said thought fully, "I guess I could try to melt a path through, it would take a while as I can't use that big spray of acid much more."
"Hey buddy. I'm pretty bangs up too. This little monster really hurt me. I would like to take our time and cut through we have people on the other side so it would take half as long."
"Perhaps it would be best to take the pugwampi back to camp, return here to camp, and in the morning you can heal the goat enough for us to lead it out."
"I wonder if my tent is thick enough."
Lupe inspects his backpack to see if it was pierced.
The group comes up with a few good ideas and by using the tent and some hack and slash technique, you are all able to return to camp without any further injury, and with a fairly intact specimen in tow. It does take you 1-2 hours to accomplish however, and by the time you get back you are exhausted (technically, in pathfinder terms, you are fatigued). Well those of you that hacked and slashed and/or wrestled with the tent, goat, and cacti. Casper, of course, is fresh as a daisy. On the other hand, Dashki has not been very good company and, well, the look on his face has been quite smug. And all those murmurs about how he was right. And how they should have trusted him, being an expert and all. And how lucky they were to have him there (even though he did nothing to help). I suspect that Casper by now is not only bored, but quite irritated. And Casper is not the friendliest of fellows even in a good mood from what I can tell.
Lupe walks into camp carrying a goat and pugwampi bloody with big smile on his face.
The group comes up with a few good ideas and by using the tent and some hack and slash technique, you are all able to return to camp without any further injury, and with a fairly intact specimen in tow. It does take you 1-2 hours to accomplish however, and by the time you get back you are exhausted (technically, in pathfinder terms, you are fatigued). Well those of you that hacked and slashed and/or wrestled with the tent, goat, and cacti. Casper, of course, is fresh as a daisy. On the other hand, Dashki has not been very good company and, well, the look on his face has been quite smug. And all those murmurs about how he was right. And how they should have trusted him, being an expert and all. And how lucky they were to have him there (even though he did nothing to help). I suspect that Casper by now is not only bored, but quite irritated. And Casper is not the friendliest of fellows even in a good mood from what I can tell.
It might be the case that Dakshi now considered himself as having been vindicated, after a fashion, in the eyes of the rest of this motley caravan , but nothing could be further from the thinking of Casper Cantour. No, indeed, he still held the strange man under the ginger's own assiduously-cultivated pall of suspicion. But for now he would pretend to accept the restoration of the gnoll-expert, but maintain his watch and guard.
@Casper
Give me a bluff roll to see if Dashki buys it.
Everyone hears your approach from far away (or should I say, the goat's approach). The first to greet you are the husband and wife team that simultaneously yell 'Burly' and 'Rombard' at the same time and quickly collect their beloved pet.
The next to greet you are Almah, closely followed by Garavel. She is about to congratulate you all when she sees the gremlin, but then she get's a whiff of you. Coming up short rather abruptly, she backs off a bit.
"Wow! thank you for your sacrifice!."
Garavel chuckles a bit at her osmophobia and moves forward to take the gremlin.
Garavel: "You captured it alive! Well done."
Almah: "Indeed. Well done! Looks like you picked well, Garavel. Very resourceful. I have a good feeling about you. You are going to be very handy to have around, I'm sure."
Garavel: "Do you think there are more of these things?"
Almah: "Almost definitely. I think we will need to find a less exposed place to camp."
Lupe is a wild wolfman and is not bothered by the smell.
"You can question it if you like. One of us speaks gnoll. I'm going to fill the barrels and waterskin for everybody."
Lupe walks around for an hour filling anything that holds water.
When Rahella first got a whiff of the goat's smell and realized it would be sticking to Lupe from carrying the goat, she resolved to deal with the situation when they were finished. After delivering the goat to his owners Rahella looked to Lupe and said, "Let me do something about the goat smell you picked up, I don't think you want to find yourself in contest for stud with the she-goats." Muttering a few words in an arcane tongue and gesturing Rahella released a spell to deal with the stench of the goat pee.
Vulpina keeps her distance on the way back; while she is happy to work for her place in the caravan-- firearms are not cheap, after all, and even their maintenance can be costly at times-- she does not see any reason to take in more of the smell than she must.
She is happy to stride back in to a hero's reception, however.
"A more auspicious campsite or twice as many guards," chuckles the noblewoman, "but at least we had the resources to find what went wrong. If one cannot be proactive, one must be reactive as well as possible."
"Thanks. Sorry I did not really notice the smell. Where I grew...ummm thanks. I don't want to upset people."
The party sets to removing scents and restoring the water. When the broken barrel is mentioned, Father Zastoran announces that he has just the spell to fix it, but that it will have to wait until morning. Also, upon noticing your wounds, he casts a few cure spells over the most injured (up to 3 CLW and 2 cure moderate wounds).
Almah and Garavel study the Pugwampi for a few minutes, but before long Almah tells her major domo to 'dispose of the thing', not willing to allow a creature of bad luck to remain. Dashki, takes the corpse but instead of burying it, attaches it like some kind of trophy by a noose to the end of a staff outside his tent.
Almah calls you all into her tent in the morning.
"It seems that you are a resourceful group and we will be needing resourceful help. I'm willing to offer you 200 gp to stick around and help. "
"It's alright Lupe, there is no need to apologize and it took no real effort to accomplish," Rahella said with a smile at Lupe in response to his thanks.
Once they had gotten the gremlin to Almah and the decision to dispose of the pugwampi made, but before it was carried out, Rahella asked quietly, "If you would allow I would like to satisfy my curiosity about the pugwampi?"
She seemed to search for something and then said, "Well crap, the creature did not have enough life force to be of use to me." She sighed, "Oh well, at least his suffering is over and he can continue on to his next life."
The next morning Rahella awoke and studied her spells as usual before the sun arose. She then removed the body stocking and pulled her robes on again, covering her head face after eating breakfast, and reported to Almah's tent as requested. She listened to what the woman said and considered before replying, "I will continue with you and do what I can to assist."
Absolutely, they allow you to examine the limp form to your heart's content.
"Brother sorry about your sword. My fixing magic won't do much but maybe Father could help his magic is like mine but he is better at it."
While getting healed Lupe talks to father, "Wow. I feel much better. Thanks father. Maybe I can try that test you said soon." Lupe then whispers, "It does not involve much reading does it?"
Katsumi blinked in confusion at Almah's offer. "Did not Garavel already hire us? Or have we already completed the task we were hired for, and now you wish to continue with our services."
"If you wish to offer me monetary compensation, I would not object." Sarona adds.
"I do not believe we have yet completed our hired task--we are to continue to Kelmarane, correct?"
"Your services are to be paid for on an ad hoc basis. If I find you have proven useful, I will pay you. And, as you can see, I can be quite generous. I have something I want you to do. Consider this as payment to accomplish the task. There is an abandoned monastery to Sarenrae near Kelmarane. I'd like you to secure it and make sure it is safe for us to set up camp there."
Lady Vulpina does not deal with the pugwampus any longer than she must; in fact, she entirely misses Rahella's interesting display, in favor of checking her pistol.
Despite its upkeep, something has been lessening its impact. She spends a bit of time taking it apart, cleaning sand out of the clockwork. She has concerns... but there's always her blade if the gun does not work.
By morning, when they are summoned, Vulpina gives a deep, respectful nod. "I do believe we have time for a little extra work," she chuckles. "Do you happen to know what might have become of the monastery, or is investigating that part of the assignment?"
Almah looks at Garavel and Garavel looks at Almah.
"Well, we did not even know that it existed before we got here. It was spotted by Trevvis and his crew on a scouting expedition and it lies about half way between here and Kelmarane and, from what they told me, is a bit beat up and there is no evidence of inhabitation. Though, I think we can all agree, there is probably something in there. Anything with a roof and walls will attract attention. I do have a crude map of the area and you can asks Travvis if there are any specific questions you have."
Lupe likes hanging around father if for no other reason then to watch how his magic works.
"Father I was thinking about going ahead a little to secure the monastery. Do you know anything about it? Do you think it's a good idea?
After that Lupe will go over to the gnoll expert. "Dashki? Do you think the gnolls would attack the monetary or use it as a hideout."
"I'm afraid the good Father has no reason to help me save for what coin I could offer. Spellcasting is a treasured resource, and it may be best for me to simply wait to purchase a new weapon. I believe my backup will suffice for now."
*****
Understanding that this was an additional task not covered in their original agreement, Katsumi noded. "I would be more than happy to help secure a place of worship for the Dawnflower. I'm sure such an act would cause her to look kindly upon our venture and perhaps grace us with her favor." In truth, he was not certain it was worthwhile to clear the temple solely for camping for a night on their way forward. However, not wishing to dissuade Almah from her chosen path, he kept that concern to himself. It was, after all, a temple to his goddess, and that was reason enough for him to take on this task.
@Lupe
The priest responds by saying, "A monastery, hmmm. I vaguely recall one being in this area and some tragedy befalling it, but I can't for the life of me remember what happened. If you are really interested, I can run you through some intelligence tests. They do require some reading, normally, but I suppose I could administer them verbally. How about right after lunch?"
Daski considers briefly, and posits "It is possible, of course. I do not know the location of every tribe and most of my work was done elsewhere. But I could certainly see gnolls setting up shop in some ruins. If there are gnolls there I would expect to see construction or the repair of the walls. They are very military minded and would make decent defenses a priority."
@Katsumi
Almah nods approvingly at Katsumi.
"I think that is a good attitude. You never know when the good graces of a major deity will come in handy. When do you think your team will be ready to go, and is there anything you need from us in advance?"
Snapping her fingers, she adds, "Father Zastoran has a virtual storehouse of potions, though prying them out of his hands is not an easy task. Still, you might want to spend some of that money on some of them."
"Ummm. OK, father, I will see when the group wants to leave if I have time away from my duties I can try. "
Lupe will collect the group.
"So team we have a mission. It could be gnoll filled but I know what to look out for, now. We should head out soon, I think, to not delay things too much."
Katsumi nodded. "It would be good to head out with plenty of daylight."
You all leave early in the morning, though it turns out the monastery is only a mile from where you currently camp so you have plenty of daylight to work with. You top a rise and see the monastery below you to the east, It's western walls have two huge fallen sections with a patchy carpet of weeds and lumps of brush that resemble a company of invading green and brown creatures. The exposed nave beyond is a huge hallway littered with collapsed masonry. Most of the roof above the long promenade is gone, but several jagged pillars remain.