You carefully approach the clearing trying to stay hidden, but before you even step onto the open area, the plant in the middle begins moving its tendrils towards you. Before you can advance further a yellow cloud of pollen shoots towards Davor, hitting him in the face.
Ini rolled in last post
Success: No Effect.
Failure:
Now that you have arrived at the clearing you can better see wahts awaiting you.
A fifty-foot-diameter clearing in the jungle here allows the sun to beat down upon a field of wilted-looking plants, their leaves a sickly, diseased yellow.
A yellow musk creeper grows in the center of this glade, its noxious spores and invasive roots having leached away much of the nutrients in the surrounding area. The large, bulbous plant and its tall-stalked, twitching yellow flowers loom in the center of the clearing, flanked
by a pair of yellow musk zombies created from unfortunate victims.
Seeing the fat cloud of spores land directly in Davor's face, Father Kerndrew takes his friend's advice and stands ready to hold him back if he shows signs of succumbing to some kind of mind control.
Davor feels the blast of pollen hit him square in the face. He stops his breath but can feel that he wasn't quite fast enough....
When the pollen hits Davor nothing seems to happen for a second before the Half-Orc lurches forward onto the clearing. Father Kerndrew is almost surprised but manages to get a hold on Davor.
The Zombie starts to move forward and charge at Kerndrew and Gregor slamming into them with force.
Shalissa tries to help finish the blue zombie as fast as possible casting shocking grasp and stepping forward to release it on the zombie with a crackling blast of electrical energy.
Gregor grimaces ad the Zombie slams a fist into his chest. He sees Shalissa fire an arc of electricity at them but his focus is on the slack jawed Davor, who looks to be mesmerized by the plant. He shakes his head thinking this might be the stupidist thing hes done, and darts past the zombie heading straight towards the plant. he swings his axe as he get next to it. he feels the axe bite into it. He shouts Kill the master and the zombies may stop.
"Oh no! Do not break the lines or they will slaughter us!" Shalissa shouts horrified as the zombie attacks Gregor "We should focus on destroying one!"
Shalissa is laying a solid Shock on the Zombie when she sees Gregor dash past her to attack the plant. The Zombuie is trying to hit him with his fist, but is to slow.
When Gregor arrives at the creeper the tendrils reach forward trying to slap, him but he is easily able to cut them off with his axe. From the other side another tendril shots forward at him but is blocked by his armor.
"$#^%$@!" the Father curses as Davor slips through his grip. But with two zombies on him, he hasn't time to dwell on failure; he draws his sword and attempts to dis-arm one of them.
Unable to control himself Davor moves ahead toward the creeper. In his mind he is screaming, wanting to chop the thing into tiny bits!
Father Kerndrew raises his sword and dis-arms that frustrating zombie in one fell swoop.
But the plant sends his second servant after the paladin and delivers another heavy blow against Kerndrews unprotected side.
Gregor seeing his friend standing. Ready to receive the plants attention goes on the offensive.
His attention split, the battle axe attack wasn't precise, though the hand axe struck true.
Eyeing Kendrew in a bad state Shalissa steps behind him and makes a prayer to the gods touching the Father at the end to heal him "Winds and waves fix this man's wounds so he can be the wall that stands before adversity!"
Gregor continues to hack at the tendrils, and severes another one, spraying green ichor in all directions.
Feeling besieged, the Creeper decides to gain himself with a new defender. Various Tendrils snake themself towards Davors temples and bore into the Rogues brain.
You take 1d4 Intelligence damage per round.
Father Kerndrew hacks at the remaining zombie even as he opens himself to Iomedae's healing. "Davor! Resist this!"
You watch in horror while Davor stands still before the plant and lets it invade his brain.
Meanwhile Father Kerndrew hacks the last (for now) remaining Zombie to pieces and rushes forward to help Gregor destroying the creeper.
I should have rolled the Int damage so here it is:
Davor stands, horrified as he feels the plant drilling in to his head. He struggles (mentally) but cannot break free.... He feels, less intelligent!
Gregor hacks at the plant in front of him. The plant was getting the better of the Ranger he shouted need some help here
"We are coming! Endure!" Shalissa moves forward blasting with an electrical ray at the plant.
But the electricity fumbles in her fingers "Damn! Not the time for that!"
The creeper continues to turn Davor into the zombie trying to complete the task before Gregor starts hitting it again.
"It's doing something to Davor's mind! Cut those tendrils quickly!" Shalissa steps to the side to avoid any cover and launches another spark of electricity at the plant.
Gregor grits his teeth and swings his axes, thine tendrils whipping out and confusing the attacks.
Davor feels intense pain as the tendrils burrow deeper, and he starts forgetting things. He could cast magic.... couldn't he?
Kerndrew steps to the other side of Davor and--focusing Iomedae's attention on the plant creature--tries to get a sense for if this is just an unlucky outcome of nature, or if the creature is actively evil. He slashes at the tentacles that are boring into his friend's brain, drawing on Iomedae's fury with the strike.
Panicfueled you continue hacking at the plant, while trying to read Davors expression for signs of beginning transformation into a zombie.
This time shalissas Arc is hitting the creature in the torso leavin some minor burns before fizzling out.
In the meantime Father Kerndrew manages a clean hit cleaving another significant part out of the innocent plant.
The creeper continues to suck out Davors brain trying to regain some of its lost strength.
Please decide on your action before reading the appropriate spoiler. Of course you can also decide to do something completely different.
Run away
The Tentacles are forcefully ripped out of your skull, leaving you with several cuts on your temple and 1d6 damage.
Try to pull the tendrils out
This costs your standard action. You try to avoid the worst damage, but still it hurts for 1d4 damage.
Attack the tendrils
Roll your normal attack, if you male at least 4 damage ou are free of the tendrils.
Attack the tendrils
Roll your normal attack, The creeper will continue to suck out your brain if it is not killed by the group.
With a roar, somewhat between terror and anger Davor slashes at the tendrils in his head. He doesn't know what he's lost except that he knows that he lost.... something.
Roaring in frustration Davor desperate hacks at thet endrils attacking his brain. not really making any progress.
Fortunately all the damage the other had done to the Stemm of the creeper was prooving too mich and it finally collapsed in a heap of green and yellow plant mass.
Gregor gathers some tinder and starts preparing a fire to insure there was no spores remaining.
"Are you ok Davor?" Shalissa rushes to take care of Davor, examining her head and where the tendrils have been attached.
The elf frowns "You should take more care, we do not need another zombie in the party" the woman chuckles and smiles seeing Davor will recover on time.
"Let's register the area after burning the spores. Perhaps one of the victims had something of use"
When Gregor mentions getting rid of the innocent plant once and for all, Kerndrew reminds him also to dig out the roots.
While the men do that and mind the fire, Shalissa is looking at the zombies. One of them seems dressed like a native with sharpened tooth, while the seems to be from a shipwreck survivor. MOst of the clothing has rottet away but the superb Leather vest below is stil in usable ondition. and in the belt pouch you even find his pouch.
"Look at this Davor, this leather armor is in very good condition, would you like to take it?" Shalissa inspects also the pink pearl with detect magic and attempts to appraise it if it is mundane.
"It seems we have rooted the infestation. Still I won't like to rest here" the elven woman looks farther west "What do you think if we continue our exploration along the coast and look for a better place to pass the night. At least one without infectious plants, burned or not"
None of the things you found are magical. The pearl is worth 130 gp.
Happy that you managed to remove this thread and jhoping that there are no more of theese creepers on the island you return to the abandoned camp and consider how to move forward.
You follow the beach for a few minutes when you notices a trail branching of into the center of the island.
Davor feels where the tendrils were attached, carefully tugging while wanting to rip them away. "Ah.... I'm not sure. I seem to.... I mean, well, I'm not sure. I think I've forgotten things. I just can't remember!"
Glad to have the elven lady's assistance Davor does what he can to help everyone. When offered the pretty armor he looks confused. "I have armor. It feels comfortable. Is that better?"
After caring for Davor and discussing the merit of wearing a leather armour formerly owned by a zombie, you set out again following the trail leading you in a southwesterly direction.
Gregor is leading the way watching carefully for any signs of the flying monster or canibals approaching. He is just about to step around a corner in the trail when Shalissa is shouting at him to stop pointing at his feet.
When looking down he sees a carfully hidden snare laid out for him, just about to snatch him up.
Shalissa catches Gregor and pulls him back "We have enough with a half-witted-half-orc we do not need a half-hanged man"
The elf looks for the origin of the snare, and points it out so everyone can easily avoid it getting into the jungle for some metres "We better leave it untouched so whomever put it there does not know we have found it"
Afterwards she proposes continuing the trip through the coast to the west.
When Shalissa points ot the snare you are able to follow the rope to a nearby tree. The Trap was apareently meant to fling Gregor into the ais and against the tree. For good measure the place where he would have hit the tree is lined with spikes. Somebody does not like shipwreck survivors on thsi island.
"That is nasty. They really wanted to kill a person not trap an animal..." Shalissa looks worriedly at the spikes.
"Shall we continue following the coast? I do not think staying in the island is an option, specially after seeing this"
Davor looks at the trap once it is pointed out to him. "Not for animals.... ?? But it would work! If an animal walked across it and set it off. It would get stuck on those spikes and you wouldn't have to kill it. Just butcher for meat, and then reset the trap."
"Are you sure Shalissa? Maybe they have extra meat from their trap and could share."
"Oh, bless your heart." Father Kerndrew says as he pats Davor on the shoulder. "Maybe you're right, Davor. Maybe you're right."
"Still," he continues. "We should continue to be wary."
"Who's mapping? Let me get a look at that." Father Kerndrew studies the map before offering his opinion on which direction to take.
Im for moving forward along the coast, then double back and follow the trail inland tomorrow
After having found the trap, you decide its better not to follow the obvious trails for now in order to avoid this devious devices. Due to the winding nature if the coastline this takes a good while longer but is also much saver.
In the late afternoon Davor discovers another colony of Crabs, so you decide to give the part of the beach a wide berth before finding a resting place.
In the next morning you travel furtehr along the beachuntil you reach another abonded Campsite.
This campsite looks almost like a series of partially ruined nests made out of palm fronds and driftwood. A large number of broken sawtooth sabres
and daggers lie scattered about here. You also notice a trail leading southwards from here into the jungle likely leading back to the trails you found yesterday.
Davor follows along with the group, staying mostly quiet as he has trouble thinking, or maintaining his focus. That night he does his best to relax, going to sleep petting his familiar.
In the morning he feels a little better.
Gregor looks through the weapons to see if theres anything thats particularly well balanced or of nicer metal.
While the others are looking through rusted and broken sabres davor is sitting down in one of the nests of driftwood and tries to remember where he had seen this nests before. While he was musing, he noticed a fine looking scabbard under some wood. When he picked it up he notices it still contained its dagger.
Shalissa provided long term cares to Davor, doubling his speed of recovery.
"Who do you thing lived in here? It seems like the nest of some kind of flying creature" Shalissa also scans the area with detect magic.
"Fortunately it seems the owner is not here around. Perhaps we should continue our exploration before it decides to come back home" the elven woman is happy to move on through the coast once more.
Wondering about these strange huts, you continue along the beach westwards. After another tow hours you round another of these cliffs to find the next nbit of beach. The Waves reach pretty high by this time and swirl around an immense red and orange crab the size of a small
house that crouches on spiny legs.
Noticing the fine looking scabbard Davor stands and turns to reach for it. Picking it up he notices the dagger still in it. He starts to reach for it to pull it, then stops and hands it to Shalissa. "Here Shalissa. I found this under the pile there. It looks really nice. Maybe you should wear it?"
Shalissa slowly takes the dagger from Davor's hands "I can take it if none of you is going to do it. It might come handy to cut stuff" still, she keeps going around using her trident, leaning the tip of it as she walks.
---
"A giant crab? Do you think it is alive? It might have a lot of food if it recently died" Shalissa starts moving cautiously towards the crab thing and tries to determine if it seems alive.
Davor shrugs once Shalissa takes the scabbarded dagger. "I have the blade that you let me use. I remember that you said it was magic. Maybe that one is too?"
Davor stops in place at the site of the huge crab. "Careful! A crab that size would need a lot of food. It might eat people!"