Gamble ignores the irritation of the fleas in favor of defending himself from the large wolf in the thicket. He drops his bow and draws his sword.
"We're whittling them down!" he calls out. "Stand together and put these dogs down!"
He swings at the larger wolf.
The wolf gets ready to spring down when Deerslicer's arrow takes it in the calf. It yelps in surprise as Gracie ambles over across the back of the wagon and clamps down on its neck. With surprised eyes, the wolf collapses on the wagon bench, no longer breathing.
Despite the irritating flea bites and the feeling of unease coursing his body, Gamble stands his ground, swings at the larger wolf and nearly hits, his sword cutting a few long furs. The larger wolf snarls with deep amber coloured eyes at the Ulfen man.
From the north, and with her mate under attack, rushes the female alpha, teeth bared! It leaps at Gamble, snaps its jaws at him before twisting itself to attack the hedge-thing that hurt her pack mates.
The jaws fail to find purchase against Gamble, yet snap through Pepper's frame easily, ravaging her physical form.
"Hello! I am an Alpha Female too and-- OWWWW!"
Pepper winces as the bite takes a chunk of tree out.
"WHAT?!"
Fleas start biting like crazy, sucking her sap right out her.
"Well... excuse me again, sir!", she says, as she moves back the way she came, passing under Gamble's powerful arms-- but no flies pass from her to him.
She then casts the same storm spell of electricity, trying to send an arc flying between the two wolves to the North of her, but the fleas make her spell less efficient... though the sparks are heightened by Gamble's melodious words!
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"Now, now smelly beast, no biting our new friend."
With steel in his voice, Sinan barks out "Sayidat alshams, ahmini fi waqt alhajati," repeating the same chant as before to revitalize the glowing shield before trying to hit the male alpha.
Sinan puts on a brave face, but is probably too nervous from hearing that eerie howl. His cuts are too wild and out of control, allowing the alpha male to easily dodge them. The smell of ozone permeates the air as Pepper ducks under Gamble's arms. an electric arc surges between both alphas. The male already on guard from being attacked twice, avoids the electricity completely as his mate receives a fair jolt that causes her to yelp in pain .
Furious at what the wicked lightning tree has been doing to its pack,the alpha male rushes after Pepper , cutting them off before opening its mouth and unleashing a stream of painfully bright green acid that coats Pepper, Sinan and Gamble.
(...)
Pepper is busily shaking her limbs like crazy, leaves flying left and right, as she tries to swat the wolf-fleas that are slipping under her bark.
"I have no blood! Leave me a--"
--when she spots the Alpha Male rushing at her, teeth bared.
She now addresses said wolf:
--alone! LEAVE ME ALONE!"
She braces for its bite-- when it belches some sort of gastric acid, a flood of gastric acid, on her.
"What the...?!"
But bracing is not the best situation when you wish to dodge liquids.
Drenched in wave of acid, Pepper's leaves dissolve, her bark peels off and goes up in smoke, the tender wood beneath burns up.
She is in too much pain to even talk.
Meanwhile, perched on Pepper's shoulder, Beltza's entire field of vision turns green as all she can see is acid--
--before she can no longer see... as she disappears, totally dissolved into nothingness.
The emphatic link cut, Pepper screams: "Beltzaaa!"
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Deerslicer's eyes go wide as he sees the wolf spit acid, horrified as he watches the small plant creature disintegrate. "Ack! Gracie, kill it!"
Gracie jumps from the wagon and, being a smart bear, takes a wide arc around to surround the wolf, swiping with claws with no desire to get a bite of acid.
Deerslicer steps back to get more range on the shot on the wolf.
Deerslicer winces as his shot flies dangerously close to Gracie. "Sorry! My bad!" he yells.
Sinan spits in disgust and frustration. No longer fearful of the wolf's capabilities, just resolved to make sure it doesn't continue to spread it's filth in lands touched by the sun's grace.
Gamble lets out a shout of surprise and pain as the burning emesis splatters over his body. "What kind of wolf does that!?" he cries out in a ragged, rhetorical query.
He brushes away the distracting fleas with several swift motions before he thrusts his sword at the magical wolf. He speaks a series of strange words that twist in your ears and leave your memory, which summons a translucent, round shield of force.
Kunsheng's dagger flies over the alpha male's head, as the tien-shu rushes over with his sling ready. With the female alpha busy with an acid covered Gamble, both Sinan and he watch as Valor bravely darts into the trees, rapier at the ready and runs the female alpha through in its hindquarters. The female lets out a loud howl as the rapier gravely wounds her . Gamble sees this opportunity and thrusts boldly, but the female is on guard and sidesteps nimbly, watching a faint, round shimmer form in front of Gamble. As Valor readjusts his guard, he would immediately see that the acid did heavy damage to the Qadiran , with the Ulfen barely able to stand on foot as the acid ravaged him the worst.
Deerslicer and Gracie come to the aid of a critically wounded Pepper , most of her leaf cover consumed by the acid, with bugs crawling all over her wooden frame, and sap running freely along her bark. They are a pitiful thing to behold. At Deerslicer's command, the young bear jumps out of the wagon, arriving first to Pepper's aid as the keeps eating them away. Gracie snarls, teeth bare as it swipes at the larger wolf, but her concentration is broken as Deerslicer's arrow almost pierces her, flying past her. The claws find no purchase on the alpha wolf's hide, the raking only a tuft of fur.
Badly injured, its will broken, the female alpha regards her attackers, turns full circle and runs away bleeding into the forest, rapidly vanishing within the woods.
Cooky crawls to the south of the wagons, grabbing his longsword and heading towards the horses who have been frightfully neighing and grabs their reins.
Pepper plants herself on her roots, and-- twirls!
As she spins around, the fleas are shaken loose, and go flying off into the dirt or tall grass...
Of course, a lot of sap goes flying off at the same time.
She then looks around, and sees that if she moves away, she leaves the tall man whose arms she keeps passing under quite exposed, and he seems quite badly wounded too.
So Pepper waves her branches around, and speaks ancient Fey words of Primal power:
"B͏y͝ Bay̛ a͜nd͢ B̸er̛r̨y,͏ ̷m̶a͡y̧ ́you͠r ͡w̨ơu͜n͝ds͟ ͢s͝t̢i͞tch ͡u̡p!̛"
Pointing at Gamble-- whose flesh and bones heal.
She smiles, thinking that my first real spell, and it seems my magick is powerful!, then closes her eyes-- "Beltza, keep a stump for me, I might be coming!"
"A good idea, jameela."
Sinan's eyes begin to glow with golden light as he reaches out towards pepper. "Sayidat Alfajr , shifa' juruh sadiqiun," and then he touches his own chest. "...thuma khasiti."
The rays of the sun bathe both Pepper and Sinan for but a moment, the light helping to mend their wounds.
With the party rallying and his companion fleeing, the alpha snarls in frustration, biting at Gracie, acid burning into her wounds, with the same movement the alpha slams Gracie on the ground before turning at Pepper, the odious lightning tree that hurt his pack.
Jaws clamp around the lithe frame of the leshy, the wolf biting on bark and leaves as it throws Pepper on the dirt road against the wagon . The acidic saliva of the wolf burning Pepper even more. It resentfully watches the others approach, growl-barks at them while taking several guarded steps back into the forest, growling and snarling as it slinks back into the forest.
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Simon is a lover, not a fighter, so he's perfectly fine letting the wolf go. Frankly, he's not much of a lover either, but there's no point in getting hung up on what's true versus what's convenient.
Valor Holysword strides to Kunsheng, sheaths his rapier before people can get a good look at it, and applies some Battle Medicine.
Valor Holysword calls down the healing power of Iomedae.
"Spirits be thanked!" Gamble shouts as the primal energy surges through him. He squats down to pick up his bow, leaving his sword on the ground in the process.
"I am not sure allowing them to spread whatever disease afflicts them is wise," he says as he launches arrows after the strange wolf.
Gamble's shoots two quick arrows at the escaping alpha wolf. As the wolf darts through the trees, Gamble can't tell if the first arrow hit, however; he can hear a cut-off whine as the second finds it mark, but with the thick woods, he can't tell if the creature is dead.
Cooky manages to get the horses under control, while in the next wagon over, the twins are injured, but with large grins on their faces as Tamli berates their recklessness.
Bort calls down from the front of the caravan, "Is everyone all right?" He walks down towards you all frowning at your injuries while hanging a twin pair of hatchets on his belt hooks. He reaches to where Valor is treating Kunsheng and stops at the visage of Pepper. "By Abadar's Vault! Is that a tree?!" he says pointing at Pepper.
Without looking Valor's way, Sinan calls to him over his shoulder while walking slowly to their new forest friend. "You should spare Iomadae's blessing, Valor, my friend. There's no telling if that beast will return with more. I'm sure you have healing supplies on your sash as I do. We should use those. After all, I can only bring Sarenrae's grace once more this day."
He smiles down at Pepper. "And Kusheng, my friend. If they are diseased, we should burn the bodies. Perhaps we can avoid more of what the town ahead is known for."
Sinan extends a hand to help Pepper up and his voice lowers for her to hopefully understand his words and sincerity. "Thank you for your timely appearance, jameela. I am Sinan. What might I call you?"
"Indeed! Thank you for your aid, tree spirit!" Gamble booms as they begin to take stock of the aftermath.
"How are the horses?" he asks the startled Bort.
Bort snaps out of his shock and clears his throat before addressing Gamble. "Horses are good. Just mightily scared, and with good reason, I'd say. We'll just check the wagons aid our injured and should be on our way in 10 minutes or so. Etran's Folly is about half an hour away, so thankfully we won't have to be here at night." Bort shudders as he glances about. "Never saw wolves that desperate. Nor anything like the big one you fellas fought. Was busy with my own, but there was something odd about that one."
He smiles slaps you all on the back and heads back to the twins grinning. "Now this is a story to tell, eh."
"You know", he stops his jostling and looks over his shoulder, "I should really thank you all. A dwarf must always pay his debts. Join me for dinner once we reach town. It'll be my treat."
As the rays of the sun appear, and bathe Pepper, her wounds heal up quite well, but you also notice that her little tummy suddenly grows a bit, as if filled up.
Feeling better, she turns to Sinan: "Th... thank you!"
But then, suddenly, she belches.
"Excuse me..."
But then the wolf takes a bite out of her, sending her against wagon and onto the road, lying in the dust like a felled tree.
Suddenly, as she hears all the commotion die down, a face appears above her.
Pepper looks back up at the Dwarf:
"I do not know if that's a tree over by Abadar's Vault, but I could sure use a hand getting up, sir."
She holds her branch-hand out...
And then smiles when Sinan helps her up.
"Oh, it's my pleasure. But... I am Pfifferling Chanterelle, not Jameela.
But you may call me Pepper!"
Dusting herself off, she smiles at Gamble: "You are welcome, Powerful-Armpits!"
Pepper looks at Simon: "I am a leshy, sir. A fungus leshy to be more accurate. An immortal spirit of Nature temporarily granted a physical form by the Progenitor to check the Material Plane's towns for environmental problems.
And you, what are you?"
After, Pepper will spend some time gathering up the little bits of Beltza's tiny corpse that were not dissolved by acid.
Then, during the 10 minutes before the caravan starts moving on, Pepper goes up to Gracie: "Do you mind?"
If allowed, she scoops up some dirt from the path, and adds him some grass to make a natural poultice, before mixing in some sap - a polite way of saying she spits in it - and leaves.
Then she tends to the wounds, and applies the medicine she just packed together.
Seeing the people getting ready to go, Pepper looks around: "Could I come with you, just for a bit?
I feel a little uncomfortable remaining alone out here if that big wolf comes back, all wounded and upset!"
"Iomedae's blessing is an endless fount," Valor says piously.
"Of course you can join us, Pepper. You were willing to risk your life for us, we can do the same. And I apologize for the confusion. Jameela is not a name, it is.. a saying in Qadira."
During the 10 minutes, Sinan will ignore his own wounds to tend to others that might need healing. "Who else is still injured? Gamble? Deerslicer? Bort, is anyone in the caravan hurt?"
"A... nice saying, I hope?", Pepper says to Sinan.
"And thank you kindly, I am not very comfortable regarding those wolf-animals."
"Ah, yes. In Katheer, we try to be complimentary. At least until it is time to take a more aggressive stance. As this is the first time I have met one of your people, I could be nothing if not complimentary. And I was right to be."
It takes a moment for Sinan to process what Pepper has offered as explanation of her presence. "Despite my rather extensive religious study, I know almost nothing of the Progenitor. Especially as how he gives life and soul to such wondrous creatures. I would like to know more if you are willing to share."
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As the wolf flees, Deerslicer jumps from the wagon and runs over to Gracie. "No! Mean wolf!" He shouts, waving his fist toward the forest.
As Pepper offers aid, Deerslicer nods. "Yes, help her!" He watches the tree person (mostly) heal Gracie. "Yay!"
He then runs around, seeing if he can salvage any of his used arrows.
As he looks for his arrows, he checks on where he heard the wolf's final cry to see if it is dead.
He scampers back just in time to hear Bort offering a meal and nods. "This goblin don't turn down food."
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"I'm a human," Valor Holysword stammers. Talkimg trees!
The loss of Beltza is not lost on Simon. Emotional times like this are when people are most easily parted with their money.
But he decides not to take advantage of the situation, in no small part because he doesn't want to get zapped by lightning if things go wrong..
"Was he ... She? ... It? ... was that your child?" he asks, pointing to Beltza.
"No", Pepper answers Simon, "a kindred spirit. Like a sister. She was a spirit of wild-grass. It is just that Progenitor gave her a smaller body to inhabit."
Looking over to Sinan, she smiles: "Progenitor is of the First World, but he comes here now and then. He is a big and powerful spirit. He imbued me with the Primal magicks I can use."
Pepper's bark cracks and moves around as she frowns, not understanding.
"Well... nothing. I... what do you mean? A spirit is a spirit. Beltza... nothing happened to her besides losing a body. She either went--"
Pepper looks around the side of the road.
"--back into some wild-grass.
Or else was sent back to the First World."
Pepper gives Deerslicer a sad look: "Yes, that must have hurt...
But she will be back one day!"
While searching for signs of the alpha through the brush, you find a pool of blood and a blood trail heading north. The creature seems to have escaped, even though it was injured by Gamble's arrow. There are signs of another wolf leaving with it.
As Bort struggles to reply, Cooky answers, "Horses are fine, just a bit scared Master Eigirsson. They almost went out of control, and moved the wagon a bit to the side of the road, but otherwise they're fine."
At Sinan's offer, Bort waves his hand dismissively. "Thank you, but that won't be necessary. We can deal with our own. We just look worse for wear, but we're nothing close to what you all experienced." Bort's team is actually busy tending to each other. Olf and Ulf looking the worse of it. The twins make faces as Tamli brings out a box with some herbs and bandages.
About some 10 minutes later, as Bort gives the order to move out, Cooky flicks the reins. The horses struggle and heave, but the wagon doesn't budge. Tamli comes over to check the rear wagon. "We've a problem, chief. With everyone fighting and trampling, horses got scared and moved the wagon to the side of the road. Wagon's stuck in the muck. Olf, Ulf; come over here and lend a hand." The young Ulfens groan, but walks over towards the rear of the wagon, where Cooky's pots, pans and firewood hang. Bort scratches his head. "I'm embarrassed to ask after all you've done but we could use your help. I mean, the faster we get moving the faster we'll get out of these woods. So what do you say?"
Success:You help get the wagon moving again.Failure:You help get the wagon moving again, but might be fatigued if there are less than two successes from the party.(Fatigued:You’re tired and can’t summon much energy. You take a –1 status penalty to AC and saving throws. While exploring, you can’t choose an exploration activity.
You recover from fatigue after a full night’s rest.)Crit. Fail:You help get the wagon moving again, but are fatigued.(Fatigued:You’re tired and can’t summon much energy. You take a –1 status penalty to AC and saving throws. While exploring, you can’t choose an exploration activity.
You recover from fatigue after a full night’s rest.)
Tamli and Cooky guide and pull the horses while the rest of you push. It takes several minutes and you're all covered in mud and sweat by the time you get the wagon back on the road. With the caravan finally moving, you make good time towards Etran's Folly, the outline of the town's buildings punctuated by the twilight.
Most of the simple wood-and-thatch homes in Etran’s Folly look identical to one another and are in a similar state of disrepair. A number of the houses clearly look abandoned, their roofs collapsed. As you pass through the middle of town, the wagons go around an ancient, moss-covered, large, flat, cylindrical rock standing 2 feet high, with a hole in its center and a bowl-shaped depression off to one side.
Sinan sheds his breastplate to lend his assistance in getting the wagon out of the muck. His clean white robe suffers greatly as a result.
Small as she is, Pepper's has fresh sapling-like limbs, so she is more athletic than her slender frame looks.
But she starts to slip in the mud-- and, fearful of being rolled over by the wheel, she leaps up!
And, PUSHES hard!
Very proud at helping, she smiles!
Arriving in the big city, Pepper looks around, happy to see people like rain as much as she does, and have opened their houses to it.
She carefully eyes the moss on the stone, to see what type it is.
"Biggest city I have been in, right, Bel... oh, you've gone and left me. I forgot!"
"I'm more than happy to have you join us, tree spirit!" he says congenially. "I trust it was your power that restored me?"
-----
"I'm still a little ragged," he answers Sinan.
-----
He dusts his hands and grips the back of the wagon, giving it a big heave with the others.
"Thank you for the help, Brother Valor. It is as the Inheritor to the Dawnflower. If you are injured, I am more than happy to help as well.
To the others, Sinan smiles as Valor's ministrations tend to the wounds made worse by the exertion of pushing the wagon out of the muck. "I can help with wounds as well, of course. If anyone needs it."