Bob starts singing out his rousing shanty, his deep notes resonating throughout the jungle area, and causing his companions' heart to race all the faster.
Sakura bravely leads the charge by guiding Asb to circle around and run forward, turning that momentum into a powerful leap that sends him flying gracefully over the quicksand, to land gently on the other side. The leap was so intense, though, that Sakura found herself distracted by the beauty of it; as the horse circled around, she tried to strike out with her greatsword at one of the stirges, but the sword flies harmlessly wide.
The two stirges already attached fight to maintain their hold on Ash as he struggles, their tiny insect legs pressing into his skin to try to hold themselves in place.
Meanwhile, the remaining stirge that is not attached tries once more to sink into the flailing half-orc.
This time, the stirge is successful in it's attack, sinking yet more insect legs into Ash's skin and starting to drink is blood.
Combat round 1/2
Active Effects: Inspire Courage +1
Bob
Sakura
bugs - grappled
Ash - 5 Con damage
Devin
Ilarien
Essilor
The bold may act!
|
The bugs really get to Essilor even with the repellent and help.
He is just getting ready to try to cross the quicksand when the fight breaks out.
"Stirges," he says. "Not so dangerous by themselves, but as Kridash is learning, the bloodsuckers get dangerous when there are lots of them."
He reaches deep into his mind, focusing his psychic force and flings it out as a pair of magical missiles.
Essilor's missiles quickly swarm over the quicksand, dodging around Ash's swinging arms, and burrow directly into two of the attached stirges. Both pop with a sickening wet splatter, Ash's fresh blood splattering out around them as they fall limp. The tatters hang on still with barbed legs, but to no more ill effect.
Meanwhile, the witch steps forward and glares at the remaining stirge, hoping to make it quail at the misfortune of being the only living stirge left.
The stirge quivers on the inside, feeling the hex sink in and take hold. It stays the course, though, because it is hungry and half-orc blood is apparently very sweet. Ilarien titters in a way that is very disturbing.
Combat round 1/2
Active Effects: Inspire Courage +1
Bob
Sakura
Orange bug - grappled, misfortuned
Ash - 5 Con damage
Devin
Ilarien
Essilor
The bold may act!
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
“Aloft there, aloft!” our jolly boatswain cries,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
“Look ahead, look astern, look aweather and alee,
Look along down the coast of the High Barbaree.”
Robert turns, and walks back a few steps before running and jumping across the quick sand.
And landing with all the grace of a belly flopping baby elephant.
HODGE PODGE HAMMER AND TONG!
Sakura's mighty steed lashes out with his fierce hooves, and rips the one poor remaining stirge clean out of Ash's skin, and smashes it to the ground with a satisfying crunch.
Devin hops straight into the quicksand, and quickly finds himself quite trapped. He is able to slush his way through to the far side, but is unable to extract himself.
Likewise, Bob's imitation of a belly flopping baby elephant works about as well as you would imagine. His jump is also enough to take him next to the south shore , but he splatters into the quicksand.
|
Before Ash manages to react, Sakura and Asb are already on him. The horse somehow manages to HOOFSTOMP THE STIRGES WITHOUT BREAKING ANY OF KRIDASH'S BONES. It must be a miracle. In either case, it seems the flying bastards managed to liberate quite a lot of blood from his body. He seems - even more pale than before. If that was even possible to begin with. He looks over to the quicksand with Bob and Devin inside, and readjusts the rope to help them.
"Someone can help me with this? I feel dizzy. Pretty sure I would fall in if they pulled any harder."
Essilor quickly joins everyone on the south shore with a quick hop , then everyone tries to work out how to drag Bob and Devin out of the muck. Mitarat, having stayed quiet and out of sight during the fight with the stirges, follows suit, and even gives some pointers on the best way to extract someone from quicksand. It is neither a quick nor clean process, but working together they manage it. Nothing much more than pride is hurt, and they are able to move on.
The group continues to make their way through the hot, humid jungle. Another night passes uneventfully, giving some relief to the still-struggling Ash.
The next day you resume your travels, everyone getting quite sick of all the sounds around you. The insects are just as irritating, and you are thankful that the vermin repellent is apparently quite waterproof, as the short dip in the quicksand didn't seem to reduce your protection, such as it is.
DC 5
DC 15
Initiative
As you are traveling the next day, you hear sounds coming from a clearing ahead of you. "Blasted elves! Couldn' let us harvest our mulue, coul'ya?" A sound of a solid kick follows. "Jus' hadta stop us!" Another kick. A couple of other voices chuckle. The first continues "Well now we gots ourselves somethin' worth even more! Ruddy elves..." You get the sense that he was about to continue with his rant when he suddenly stops. He sounds very annoyed as he says "You bloody fools! Someone's comin! Whadda I pay you fer!" Then the talking stops, and all you can hear are people preparing for battle!
Combat round 1
Devin
Ilarien
Bob
Essilor
Waolu
Ash - 4 Con damage
Red Guard
Green Guard
Sakura
The bold may act!
|
|
Cupping his hands and yelling into the clearing, Ho there! Do you want to surrender or leave before my 30 well armed and trained scouts from the new anti-slave force decide to drop you? It's no mind to us, but we'd like to keep some arrows for whatever the hell left the massive tracks we just found
Would you like bluff or diplomacy Mr GM sir?
Through the trees you hear a sharp intake of breath. "Look alive, fools! There be 30 of them out there!" Another voice responds "They can't all come at us all a' once, boss! Too many trees!" Both voices sound terrified, but determined. A third voice chimes in "Pret'y sure they're lyin, no way ders firty folk out there..." You hear a light smack followed by "Shut yer pie hole and shoot anything that moves!"
Combat round 1
Devin
Ilarien
Bob
Essilor
Waolu - shaken
Ash - 4 Con damage
Red Guard
Green Guard - shaken
Sakura
The bold may act!
|
|
"If it really is elves, maybe we can get some good will out of helping them," Essilor says, rather pragmatically.
He starts creeping up to the sounds of the conflict but pauses. He focuses his mental energy into a barrier of force that surrounds his entire body, providing him protection from attacks.
Essilor's armor flickers to life around him, the psychic energies shimmering briefly before fading out completely.
Peering down the path, Devin can see two men holding bows, and one half-elf crouched behind the nearer of the two guards. You can see behind them signs on their equipment that tell him what is going on - they are with the Aspis Consortium!
Combat round 1
Devin
Ilarien
Bob
Essilor
Waolu - shaken
Ash - 4 Con damage
Red Guard
Green Guard - shaken
Sakura
The bold may act!
Ilarien's armor likewise flickers to life around her, despite the very different techniques used to invoke it; arcane symbols flare to life briefly before fading out completely.
Through the trees, Devin can make out the apparent leader, cowering behind the nearest guard, fiddle around with his gear until he pulls out a scroll. All of you hear through the din of the jungle a series of arcane syllables echoing around before reaching a crescendo.
Devin suddenly sees a ghostly image floating around the caster, which appears to be a perfect image of the man. The image moves in perfect harmony with the man as he takes a small step to the west.
Combat round 1
Devin
Ilarien
Bob
Essilor
Waolu - shaken
Ash - 4 Con damage
Red Guard
Green Guard - shaken
Sakura
The bold may act!
Ash moves south, sharing a brief moment with Devin as he prepares himself for the coming fight.
Meanwhile, the guard that is further back lets loose an arrow, flying straight down the path toward the exposed Devin.
The arrow flies true, digging through Devin's armor and into the meat of his shoulder, but luckily missing anything critical on the way in. A solid hit, but 'tis only a flesh wound.
The second guard quickly moves back toward the first, looking for safety in numbers. Still shaken by the threat of 30 men, his hand quivers as he looses his arrow.
The arrow goes clumsily wide.
Combat round 1/2
Devin
Ilarien
Bob
Essilor
Waolu - shaken
Ash - 4 Con damage
Red Guard
Green Guard - shaken
Sakura
The bold may act!
|
|
Essilor moves forward as quickly as he can (which isn't actually quick at all.) He gets to a point where he can see their opponents through the underbrush and spots the man who is two men. He knows a spell when he sees one and knows that his psychobullets can hit him whether there's one of him, two of him or five of him.
He unleashes the alien creature that shares his consciousness, his eyes bulging further, his mouth growing wider, his teeth sharpening. Disturbing as his appearance was before he now looks like some sort of fiendish predatory toad.
Essilor's psychic missiles go tearing through the jungle, effortlessly swerving around and through the various jungle plants, and burrow deep into the side of the cowering sorcerer. Both images double over in pain, and stand once more to show an ugly scorch mark, trickling blood. You can now make out that the sorcerer is a half-elven man, his elegant face twisted in pain and anger.
Ilarien moves closer toward the frey, making her way south through the thick jungle growth.
Devin charges bravely forward and brings his battleaxe down in a fierce swing. At first it looks like the guard will dodge away, but he stumbles at the last second, slowing just enough to allow the axe to find purchase. It sinks deep into the guard's flesh, leaving a deep gash and a very wounded and scared man.
Combat round 1/2
Devin
Ilarien
Bob
Essilor
Waolu - shaken, -6, 1 bleed
Ash - 4 Con damage
Red Guard
Green Guard - shaken, -7
Sakura
The bold may act!
|
|
Mumbling to himself under his breath as he moves forward It was the dinosaur foot prints wasn't it? "You always go too far Bob". That's what old Ishmael used to say. But then you have two hands, and he was jealous that he had to be careful wiping his own.... adieu to you fair Qadiran ladies,
Farewell an’ adieu to you ladies of Qadira,
For we’ve received orders for to sail for old Taldor,
An’ hope very shortly to see you again.
Before he goes into too much detail about Ishmaels particulars, Bob starts to sing at the top of his lungs whilst moving down the jungle track following the others.
Sakura comes charging out of the forest astride her mighty steed, making the enmirrored sorcerer's eyes bug out wide. Meanwhile, Bob's singing starts to fill the jungle, his smooth voice overcoming even the various jungle sounds to fill his companions with vigor.
The half-elven man draws himself up and fixes Sakura with his most fearsome glare. Arcane symbols roll off his tongue in an angry and disjointed way, and he finishes his spell with a fierce gesture to the mounted woman.
"You dare to attack me? I am Waolu of the Aspis Consortium, and you will fall to me this day!"
Waolu then proceeds to move further away from the attackers, putting some distance between himself and danger. The wound from the magic missiles continues to bleed down his side.
Combat round 2
Devin
Ilarien
Bob
Essilor
Waolu - 7 damage, 1 bleed
Ash - 4 Con damage
Red Guard
Green Guard - 7 damage
Sakura
The bold may act!
The half-elf's slanted eyes widen as the burly half-orc gets right up in his face. He hurredly stammers out "t.. that's right!" He is clearly trying to sound brave, but his fear is definitely poking through.
The injured guard looks at the armed young warrior in front of him, and his clearly terrified leader, and then down at his own wicked injury, and makes a decision. He throws down his bow, keeps his hands well clear of his rapier, and says "Sod this, th' don't pay me enough for this!" He quickly steps back and away from Devin before disappearing into the jungle.
The remaining guard looks at his fled companion in disgust. "Coward!" Looking over to Devin and his bloody battleaxe, the guard grins and quickly drops his bow and moves to engage, drawing out a rapier as he goes. When he reaches Devin, he wastes no time in flashing his blade.
Unfortunately for him, Devin is far too well armored to be caught by the guard's attack, and the rapier bounces harmlessly off and to the side.
Combat round 2/3
Devin
Ilarien
Bob
Essilor
Waolu - 7 damage, 1 bleed
Ash - 4 Con damage
Red Guard
Green Guard - fled
Sakura
The bold may act!