Vultan downs the potion without a second thought. His heightened respiration punctuated by moans of pain, he doesn't say a word as he accepts the sturdy shoulders of Con and Russel.
He's able to get his feet under himself with more surety as the relief washes over him. He shudders as he feels the sensation of the potion flowing through him.
"Wow, that was really itchy there for a moment."
He lifts himself off of his compatriots and claps them both on the shoulder simultaneously.
"Thank you."
He turns toward the bush that the Puma had crept off into, eyeballing it suspiciously.
It's probably eyeballing us suspiciously.
"We can't go. It knows where we are, it can follow us way better than we can flee, and then we'll just be cold, winded, and in the dark when it comes after us next. Plus, I probably reek of my own blood..."
He briefly glances downward.
"And maybe urine, I'm not sure yet. In any case, I'm with Con. We stay, rest while we can, keep watch, on f+$#ing bush in particular, and anyone conscious after the next 15 minutes can continue working with the wood."
He marches himself over to an unused spot near the fire and plops down. He rolls backward gingerly from sitting to laying, his wings forming a cushion beneath him. He shudders repeatedly as he does so, from pain, relief, blood pressure redistribution, warmth... It's easy to imagine he's lost consciousness very quickly.
Because he has.
Tamien's eyes bulged as Vulcan said his piece and promptly plopped down.
The shock of the situation was starting to wear off and he shook his head.
"What?! No way. We can't stay here! Look, I know you're wounded and we're all getting a bit tired but staying here in the cat's hunting ground is what's suicide."
He pointed towards the beach. "I say we walk along the beach shore close to the water and stay away from the grass. It sucks, but it's a lot better than waiting for that cat to try and pounce on another one of us again."
Nick finds himself caught in considerable confusion as his unintended companions disagree amongst themselves and then seem determined to resolve the situation as awkwardly as possible.
Since making the best of a bad situation is a national trait he shrugs, settles down by the fire and starts roasting the end of the longest stick he can, turning it constantly to avoid it catching fire.
Nearly everyone agrees that you need to move on, away from the fires into the darkness, but unfortunately the most injured of you lays down and passes out. Nick gives up the argument and sits down next to the fire, roasting a stick.
Now, with two of the four having decided to stay, and one of those is unconscious, what will you do? Will you kick your companion till he wakes? Carry him? Abandon him? Or will you, too, give up the argument and site next to the fire?
-----
Meanwhile, Vultan is still obviously hurt. The potion helped, staunching the flow of blood, but they are still visibly there, where the cat bit him.
Likewise, Russel's hand hurts like hell; the pain of the burn finally settling in as the adrenaline of the fight starts to wear down.
"Alright, let's just move a little ways out of the grass, so there are less avenues for the cat to sneak up on us. We'll set a watch and rest until morning."
Russell helps move Vultan and their supplies to a slightly safer location, then sits and holds her hands away from everything so as to not aggravate her burns.
A thought occurs to her, and she checks her character sheet. "It looks like I have a last chance to change my name in this world before it gets locked in. 'Russell' is a bit too masculine for this new body. So... how about Keri? Keri Russell? Like 'Felicity.'"
She smiles faintly, but it doesn't reach her eyes. The character sheet updates her name, then the ink dries in place, locking in her new name.
John thinks on how to convince Tamien that the best course of action is to stay put for the night while people are injured and there's some basic provisions made for a camp. John notices that Tamien isn't quite in an place where he might be easily persuaded, but tries, anyway.
"I don't think it's wise to move on, right now. We don't even know where we're at and we don't know how much worse things can get if we move. Let's move a bit further away from the grass, like Russell suggested."
It's not like most of us could even see the puma coming, anyway. How dangerous would it be if we were to set out right now.
"It's better to stay here for the night, since we already made some provisions for ourselves. We could keep the fire between us and the grass, for some added safety, and try to get some rest. 2 of us are already injured from that one fight, so they'll need to rest and focus on recovery."
John stays alert, focusing on wide forest of grass the puma came from and returned to.
"We should set up a watch order now and move out when morning breaks. At least everyone will be able to see a lot better, then. Right now, I really think gathering our strength for tomorrow will be the best course of action. I think we should have watch in pairs, just in case something like this happens again. I'll take first watch with someone else, and suggest that Russell take a different watch than me, since she also seemed to notice the puma ahead of time."
John looks over to Tamien.
"I can't guarantee everything will be fine, but I am sure this will provide the greatest chance of survival for us all. And this time, we'll have our weapons with us, instead of baking over a fire."
John's eyes gleam menacingly, reflecting the low light of the fire.
"If you really don't feel comfortable, we can always just throw a bunch of fire into the grassfield near us and hope we start a wildfire. That'll definitely keep the beasts away from us and will likely keep us safe, since we're away on sand."
John shrugs nonchalantly and looks back over to Russell.
"I think Keri is a great name. Reminds me of the butter, which I wasn't able to have after I developed my lactose intolerance. I'll go by M'ushu, on this world, but you guys can know that my name is John."
Tamien helps to move Vultan to a slightly better location.
As they reestablish camp and Keri brings to light a new detail regarding the character sheets, he walked over to take a look. "Huh, changing our names again. Looks like I still have a few chances. Not sure it matters too much whether I call myself by my real name or my first D&D character name."
Tamien stared at John. "Sure, we can set up the watch how you want it. But otherwise that's some dangerous thinking. Not that it didn't cross my mind for a moment but there's no telling what else we might cause to come running to the shoreline if we did something as reckless as that."
Night Watch Order:
1) M'ushu and Con
2) Nick and Tamien
3) Keri and Vultan
The fire crackles and pops, throwing heat and light out into the cool darkness.
As you watch, you see two feline eyes peering out from the grass. The eyes reflect in the firelight.
There is plenty of cooked fish and clam remaining.
The spears are laying in the sand to cool off, though they are still hot to the touch.
John studies the reflection of the puma's eyes. He quickly scans the rest of the Great Cat entry to learn as much as he can about the beast.
I thought the food might keep it around for more. Damn, I guess I gotta learn as much as I can in case this thing jumps us, again. Oh, it only has Shadowsight! That's interesting. Let's see... 50 Health... and it looks injured, so it might be at half damage... plus the wounds it got from Vultan and Keri... It might be surprisingly close to death... It can move about 12 yards for that pounce...
John calmly scans the area around them, wary of even the shoreline, but always returns to staring down the puma.
"This thing is pretty persistent. I wonder how we can get rid of it... Did you know it only has Shadowsight? Hmmm... I'm gonna try to make a sling for these rocks I picked up; could you keep a sharp eye on that thing?"
John uses the heat from the fire to melt off a strip of polyester from his basketball shorts and ties it with the drawstring from his pants to create a makeshift sling. He loads a pebble into it to try it out and watches the pebble thud into the sand a good distance away.
"At least we'll be able to hit it before it can reach us with that pounce. It should be enough deterrent to keep that menace at bay, for now." he says to Con with a smile and a nod. "Too bad it wouldn't be able to launch a piece of burning wood, but I'm feeling safer already."
Con takes a fish, rips it in half, and tosses a piece to the puma.
"Indeed."
After it finishes the fish, he holds the other piece up and lets the cat stare at it for a few seconds before tossing it as well.
"Think it could be a shifter?" John says, thinking about some of the magic that was in this new world. "Or, maybe it's cursed. Sss sss ss I'm torn between letting the others know it's here and just letting things be for awhile. Vultan could definitely use the rest."
"I just realized that I'm not talking with that stupid lisp anymore. Probably got over it from that last ambush. Sss sss sss"
"Oh, uh... I'm don't know. I couldn't even begin to guess."
Con says with a little apprehension.
"It doesn't seem like it's acting with anything other than instinct."
He tosses a quarter of a fish, this time past the puma to see if it turns away from them to get the food or not.
The cat goes for every piece of food you toss.
As the hours pass and the watch winds down, M'ushu and Con get Nick and Tamien up for their watch. M'ushu passes the sling to one of them, just in case.
"If you see the puma, feeding it seems to work to keep it at bay, but just in case, feel free to use this sling and these rocks."
The fire is starting to die down.
By now, the spears laying in the sand have cooled to the point where you could grab them and use them if needed.
It's a lot quieter than when you fell asleep. The sounds of the waves are further away than you recall; the tide must be going out.
Time passes. It's closing in on the end of your watch when you see it. Two feline eyes, reflecting the limited light, peer out from the edge of the grass.
Damn it, I knew staying here would be a bad idea! "Is there anymore fish?"
"I could go and get some but that would take a while..." Nick offers softly. "Grab a weapon or two and be ready to yell." He advises. "I really wish we had a class level. Someone able to toss magic around would make this much easier."
"Right, makes sense. Maybe some of us will become magicians, adepts, or priests." Tamien says quietly as he moves slowly to grab some fish. "There's something else interesting in the water, but first things first. Since we're in the game, I'm gonna try something odd. I hope this works."
"It's a building." Nick says. "Let's deal with this then I'll go take a look. Water is my natural habitat now..." He steps back slightly to give Tam room to work.
"Okay, kitty. Time for a peace offering, this is my share of food. Please don't kill me." Tamien says as he took 3 pieces of fish. He walks up slowly to the shining pair of eyes in the grass, holding a fish out front and making sure to never take his eyes off of it. When he was a few feet away he lightly tossed the first one to the cat.
The cat tentatively goes for the fish, before scurrying back into the grass.
"Well that worked out well enough." Tamien says with a sigh, tossing a second into the grass before turning back to Nick. "Okay, so we have some time. This structure's in the water, it will probably only be open for a while until the tide comes back in. I don't know if the two moons is going to effect things or not." he lets out a deep breath and puts his head in his hands. "Two moons. Either way, you'll probably be fine, but I would be in trouble if that that happened."
"We could leave it till the morning. Then everyone will be awake. I don't think it's going anywhere." Nick points out with a shrug. "High tide won't be an issue for me and most of you guys probably shouldn't be trying to come in anyway. We've both roleplayed, right? You know the song about splitting the party. Goes double at night when we're wounded and asleep!"
Thankfully the rest of the watch passes without incident.
To your amazement, you feel *a lot* better than when you went to bed. Your wounds are fully or near fully healed.
(Reminder that physical wounds only show up at 1/2 health, when you're *Injured*).
It's dark out; the moons are on the opposite end of the sky, one of them is almost blocked by mountains to the west.
The tide is pretty far away from you, but it is starting to come back in. You figure that by the time everyone is awake and breakfasted, it'll be back to where it was when you fell asleep.
The early morning hours are peaceful; you don't really see or hear anything amiss. However, towards sunrise, you hear a deep low growl of a large cat, coming from the tall grass.
Keri sat close to the fire as her watch began. She carefully unwrapped her hands and marveled as the burns had already vanished. Got to love those game world rules. The elf checked on Vultan, glad to see he was healing, too.
She passes the time making small talk, but she falls quiet when she hears the growl. “Cat’s back.” She tosses some extra food into the grass, hoping to placate the beast.
The cat does not go for the fish; instead, it gives out an oddly familiar cat-like growl/snarl. The sound is aimed *away* from you.
Keri frowns. "I think... the cat is warning us?" Unsure, the elf picks up her spear and stands warily in front of Vultan.
Vultan awakes and doesn't move. He's immediately inundated with the fear that any motion will induce horrible pain.
_I've been hurt before_, he thought, feeling some mirth at the cliché.
It was only a moment before he realized his head was clear enough to think these thoughts, and though ginger, he began to move.
"Ssss... Ahhhh..."
He makes pain noises preemptively, but the pain is gone. He prods at his shoulder through his shirt.
_That's... Not a good feeling. Questions for later._
He rises with the help of his compatriots and bids them goodnight before settling in with Keri. He makes small talk by using satire of small talk. "So, how about this weather, eh?"
It's largely uneventful and Vultan does his best not to dwell on being mauled. Then the cat showed up. Keri had it handled, tossing it scraps, until she tells him about the warding growl.
He rises slowly to a low stance so as not to alert the big cat, then looks out beyond it for anything _else_ that might try to maul him.
"Should we get them up?
“Not unless we need to. For now, let's just stay alert." Keri replies.
“...yeah, yeah, alert, uh..." He trails off, scanning wide swaths of the surroundings to see if he can see anything unfriendly.
Keri's tail flicks back and forth nervously, accidentally slapping against Vultan a couple times. She glances over her shoulder. "Sorry. Still figuring out how to control that."
"It's ok, I'm into it"
He pauses a tick, realizes he has almost no relationship upon which to base his jokes, and follows up.
“Kidding."
Keri laughs nervously at the joke--if it is a joke.
You can sense something moving in the grass. A lot of somethings. You can't tell what it is from where you are. You may have to get in the grass itself to investigate. Or find some other way.
"Okay, maybe now we should wake the others..." Keri says.
"I trust your judgment. I'll keep an eye out, try to get folks up without too much noise."
Keri quietly moves to her sleeping companions and shakes them gently to wake them. ”Shh. There are many things moving in the grass. The puma is growling at them. Not sure what’s going on, but be ready.”
Thankfully the rest of the watch passes without incident.
""Truth be told, over the last few years I've begun to find that mantra to be more than a bit constricting for the game runner and for individual character creativity. Lot's of missed opportunity and it makes it a lot harder for anyone to shine.
There's merit in the power of a group for sure, but at least in games I was in, it was largely adopted so that that people wouldn't be sitting around hearing about someone else's solo adventure. It also forces cohesion where there may not be some. But everyone agrees you don't bring the heavy armor wearing fighter into a stealth mission.
Another example is the temple. We might be able to go in now, but if the tide covers it up tomorrow, you'll be the only one who can go in. Solo mission. Although, this is hardly a game anymore, so I guess it's up to you."
After a short time, Tamien's curiosity gets the better of him. "That said, sometimes interesting treasures can be found too."
You leave the campsite and walks towards the ocean to this strange building revealed by the low tide. Sticking out of the water looks to be some sort of entrance; stairs lead down into the damp corridor going into the earth.
Tamien pulls out his flashlight, clicking it on before venturing down.
You make your way down the steps, illuminating the inside with your flashlight. It goes down for a short ways before opening into a room. This place looks like a temple. In fact, you can almost feel the echoes of power here.
"Well you don't see this everyday." he says aloud to himself as he enters the room and begins to look around for clues as to what entity this place relates to. "I wonder if this is how I get to be a priest again? Or maybe I die..."
There's artwork on the walls of waves crashing against ships, demonstrating the destructive power of the ocean and of storms.
"Well that's impressive for sure." Tamien mutters to himself before he moves from the wall. He looked for any sort of altar or other area of worship to find.
Moving over to what could possible be an alter, you find a hidden set of stairs going further down.
Although he knew this could be bad, he pushes further down. Curiosity getting the better of him.
You enter into the depths of the temple, wary yet curious of what's to come. The damp air is thick with the smell of salt, and the edges of the walls are cracked and sharp.
At the very bottom, the steps are worn away and it's difficult to walk on them without slipping.
To get to the final room, you literally have to wade into the water. It gets as high as your thighs.
This basement level of the temple looks to have once been a secret room, long ago uncovered. In the back corner there is an old door, open.
With your flashlight, you can see something glinting off the light in the far back, behind the door.
Normally, the details flying through his mind would make this be a place to stop and turn around. Yet an uncommon courage swelled within him and he kept pressing forward.
"Just like the fall of Ardherin." He just had to see what was there.
As you wade into the waters, something moves. It's hard to tell what, as the dark waters don't seem to allow your flashlight to penetrate the surface. Still, you press on to get to the door and see what's beyond.
You step in and discover a trident - somehow not covered in barnacles or slime or anything else like all the rest of the stuff around here.
Then the door slams shut!
Nick thought that they'd settled the matter of exploring, but when Tamien goes ahead with exploring anyway he follows along, just in case. He lingers in the mural room, distracted by the art and falls behind, so much so that the flashlight is little more than a flicker around the corner ahead. So when the door slams shut violently he's left on the outside.
"Oh hell!" Tamien shouts reaching to grab the trident. He then starts trying to stab at whatever in the dark water.
On a failure, you aim just to the side of the door and end up scrapping against the barnacled surface, taking 1d3 damage.
Nick blindly moves forward reaching out until hands brush against the old wooden door, somehow not rotten away, and he fumbles around until he finds the handle.
You and Tam are able to hear each other through the door, though it completely blocks the light.
The door, naturally, is stuck.
"Well I can find the door, but its definitely stuck..." Nick says, starting with some firm tugging to try and see if it can be budged.
With a hard shove from Tamien and a helpful pull from Nick, you manage to get the door open, freeing Tamien.
"So what's actually in here?" Nick asks, standing in the doorway to avoid the door shutting again.
"Get out of the water!"
"Why?"
Just then, something bites down on Tamien's leg, hard. It immediately latches on.
The 2 meter long eel splashes in the water as it latches onto Tamien's leg.
"Stab it!" Nick yells.
The shouted command and pain gets to him and Tamien lashes out at the eel.
The Trident barely missed the eel; between the thrashing around and the poor grip, Tam is unable to get a good strike in!
"Sea God, right? Well here's your blood sacrifice." Tamien practically growls through the pain as he strides purposely through the water effort and stabbing at the eel. Partially skewering it this time and getting out a knife for Nick.
"Aaagh! I swore I was tougher than this a minute ago!"
Nick takes the knife and stabs awkwardly!
The creature writhes again and Tamien passes out from the pain.
Nick continues to stab as fast and hard as he can. The first one misses, but the second plunges into the eel just behind its head and the creature goes limp at last.
Breathing heavily, Nick drags Tamien's unconscious, but thankfully still breathing body up the stairs and back into the temple proper. He's sure to not let the trident be left behind. He takes Tamien's overly large shirt and uses it to clean the Halfling's bloody leg. He wrung it several times while tending to the wound, letting the bloody sea water rinse off onto the floor until the wound was no longer bleeding profusely. Then he tied the shirt around his wounded leg to stop the bleeding.
A short while later, Tamien groans and regains consciousness. The shooting pain through his leg made him sit up and adjust the tightness of the shirt.
"Hey, you got it! Thanks for saving me. I thought I was done for this time."
"No problem. Although, maybe next time we go with your suggestion and run. Can you walk?"
Tamien gingerly checked his leg. The puncture marks where the eel had bitten and thrashed burned despite the thrashing the eel had done, it wouldn't leave any lasting marks. He'd been lucky this time.
"I think so, but it might have actually struck a nerve. I might be limping for a while."
"Better limping than dead. Wasn't sure how I was going to explain that to the others. Here." Nick said with a grin, handing the trident to Tamien so the Halfling could use it as a balance to stand up. "Here's your flashlight back, by the way. I don't think I need it as much as you. Shadowsight." he said, pointing at his eyes.
It was ridiculous. In that moment the whole situation struck Tamien as just funny. Maybe it was the pain or the adrenaline rush but it was really hitting home that they'd just survived a life or death situation and neither were who they used to be anymore. He started to laugh. Nick laughed too. They laughed for a good minute before the feeling subsided.
"Right, now let's get out of here and back to camp." Tamien said, swinging his light back towards the temple entrance.
On the way back out, you see the trinket you missed on the way in.
In one corner, hidden behind old clam shells and bones and such, you find a small trinket. It's a crusted-over piece of metal that looks to be in the shape of a wave. You think it could be cleaned up with a bit of elbow grease.
This concludes the second watch adventure.
Upon hearing Keri's gentle alarm, M'ushu wakes up coiled near the ashes of their campfire, still radiating a pleasant heat. His consciousness is immediately bombarded with the sights of his environment, thanks to his new lack of eyelids.
Wow, I can't believe yesterday wasn't a dream. This is pretty exciting! Thank god I was actually able to sleep. Lacking eyelids and always seeing everything, even in my sleep, will be interesting to get used to.
After being stunned for a moment, he finally processes Keri's gentle warning about potential dangers drawing closer. He remains coiled and motionless, as if he's still asleep, thinking as much as he can while being alert for any signs of danger.
Alright, focus. What can we do now to improve the situation before s%%$ hits the fan? Where did I leave my sling...Oh yeah, over by Nick and TaMIEN?!
"HOLY S@$$ WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!" M'ushu exclaims in surprise upon Tamien's horrible bite marks. "Why didn't you guys wake us if there was something going on?!" he continues in a stern, but quieter, tone. "I hope you can at least run from whatever is coming our way."
M'ushu slithers over to assess Tamien's leg and picks up his sling and some more rocks, putting them into the pockets of his pants hood. He then slithers over to the chest and grabs the Core book.
"Grab what weapons you can. I don't think any of us have any shields or second weapons available right now, so I suggest you make that free hand useful and grab a book from the chest. Best to give ourselves as much information to look up and work with, since whatever comes next might not be in the Core book."
M'ushu looks back over to Tamien's injured leg.
"Tamien, keep yourself safe. Feel free to book it first, depending on the situation. How are you feeling, Vultan?"
Tamien let out a sigh as he was woken up earlier than he'd have liked by Keri. He didn't feel good at all. But the seriousness of her voice made him sober up.
Next he was being berated by M'ushu. Not that he could argue with the serpent. He was wounded and badly. He painfully picked himself up using his trident as a crutch, grimacing.
"I'll tell you about it if we make it through whatever this is. Besides, I'd be the slowest one on a good day. I'll be limping along." he says, moving to the far side of the group and away from the grass.
Keri picks out Terrible Beauty from the chest of books. "If they're fey, maybe I can speak to them. If not..." She keeps her spear at the ready.
"Umm... I don't think I've got anything useful at this point." Nick says, staring out into the dark. He hasn't returned Tam's knife yet - since the halfling has the trident and definitely shouldn't be getting so close and personal to anything else right now.
"They might be fey. They could be whatever hurt the Puma. We should probably get out of here."
"I agree, Tamien. Everyone, please grab a spear and let's slowly escort Tamien out of here. I don't like our chances of engaging anything that could injure that Puma, right now."]
M'ushu has a finger bookmarking the Bestiary chapter of his book and his sling loaded and ready to go.
"Con should take an extra spear, since he can throw it effectively. Tamien, how about you stay in the middle of the group as we move? If anyone wants to eat whatever we didn't give to the puma, now's your chance. Otherwise, let's roll out.
Nick has never been a fan of fish, but he's hungry and tired so food sounds like an excellent idea right now. He wolfs down the remaining pieces and finds that, in this body at least, it tastes amazing! This creates a remarkable mind/body disconnect but thankfully he presses through the confusion to grab a spear to go with the knife and falls into formation with the rest (making sure to stay on the water side of the group, just in case).
"Ready."
With everyone up, Vultan just listens to the party chatter while keeping his eyes on the bushes. He doesn't hear anything that would benefit from his input, so he stays focused until everyone is up and moving. Someone hands him a spear at some point, and then they were up and ready to move. He gets a hand on the chest and keeps a spear at the ready, but he maintains vigilance on the bush.
Con is definitely not a morning person but has always been able to jump into action when there's an emergency.
He grabs a spear and puts himself between the group and whatever is lurking in the grass. He readies himself to lunge at whatever might come into view, but still backs away with the group as they collect themselves and start moving.
He doesn't speak, as he's still tired and is focusing on impending fight.
With the good fortune of M'ushu and Keri, you were all woken up in time to see several orcs step out of the tall grass. They were ducking down low, but when the emerged, they stood up to their full 7 foot height.
There are four in total; one is missing an arm, one is too thin, one has a heavy pot belly, and one is missing an eye. But all four are armed.
You, One Eyed says, You comin' wif us. You can see they have shackles on their belts.
M'ushu tries to sneakily slither back behind his friends and, in the cover of his friends, quickly scans his book for the entry on Orcs.
"W-w-who are you guys and w-w-where are you going? D-d-did you ss-sssee the big c-c-cat?" M'ushu says to the orcs in a frightened tone to disarm them and stall for time.
Okay, they're obviously designed for fighting, but they're dumb and imperceptive, so hopefully I can inform the others without alerting them. How can we overcome this with all of our members intact... John thinks quickly while looking over the records and trying his best to look like a frightened snake child.
"They're very fast and very strong. 13 Def, 18 HP, 12 Speed and +3 attack with 1 boon. They have an ability to get another boon after receiving damage. And they might have short-range capabilities. If we engage, we'd have to focus on one target to avoid boons." M'ushu whispers to the group as quietly as he can.
"Either we fight or we follow. We'll likely have to leave one or two others behind if we try to run now." M'ushu glances briefly at Tamien. "I'm ready to do whatever you guys want. If we fight, we should probably blitz down One-Eye. The rest may flee. Otherwise, that option could get ugly fast." M'ushu says gravely and resolutely.
Tamien's face fell when he saw the Orcs. As M'ushu called out their stats he glanced at the others.
"They'll win in a fight. We could try engaging them in diplomacy. I remember they hate humans for using them as slaves. None of us are humans so we have that going for us. But halflings were a part of the empire. So I don't know if they hate halflings as much, but if anyone was going to be in danger it'd probably be me."
I can't really blame them if they scatter and leave me behind. I can't get away if the orcs pursue us.
He hoped it wouldn't come to that.
Keri's heart pounds in her chest when the orcs rise up to their full height, towering over her. They're nearly twice the elf's size, and their hulking presence makes her extremely nervous. There's no way the group would be able to fight them right now, but a good bluff now might make all the difference...
"I'll try to talk to them. Hopefully, my 'Bewitching Presence' will give me the edge," she says to Tamien. She looks to Nick, trying to gain back a bit of confidence from her friend's presence, then takes a few steps toward the orcs.
"Uh, hello!" Keri calls. "I can see by the shackles and stuff that you have that you want to take us prisoner. I would urge you against it. We are exiles from our hometown, banished for the rare and infectious disease we carry. If you come close to us, there's a very good chance you will get sick! You'll get a nasty cough, struggle to breathe, and eventually die! You would best keep your distance if you don't want to end up dead!"
Nick winks at Keri when he sees her glance his way. She knows exactly how this needs to go and just needs a little encouragement.
"This is what you're meant to do Keri." He says softly.
Nick's encouragment helps ease Keri's anxieties, and she gives the undine a slight smile before addressing the orcs.
Potbelly picks his nose and then gives a confused look to One Arm, saying, "Infestus? Wuzzat?"
One Arm retorts, "Shuddup, idiot, she said we be sick if we get close."
"So?" Potbelly says back, cleaning his finger with his mouth.
"So, we ain't wanna die, does we?"
"Die? You an idiot or simthin? Git'n sick ain't gunna make you die. This stick gunna make you die. Imma shuv it up your ass ifn you ain't gunna go over there an capture em."
One arm laughs, "You? You ain't gunna do notin with that stick! You can't even hit a cow widit!"
"Can too!"
"Can not!"
"Can too!"
"Can not!"
"Can too!"
"Can not!"
One Arm then shoves Potbelly, but Potbelly is too fat to be moved by someone with just one arm, and he shoves back using his belly, which knocks One Arm into Stick-Thin, which knocks Stick-Thin to the ground.
One Eye just looks annoyed at the three. He kicks Potbelly in the ass and says, "Knock it off, yous idiots! Chief says he wants the useless s%&&e found on this here beach, and we's gunna get the useless s&#&e we found on this here beech. And here they are! So go an gettem!"
Con turns to the party and motions for them to flee.
"Go!"
In the best distorted voice he can muster, he barks at the orcs.
"Can't you see, I've been turned INTO A DEMON!"
Then twists his face into a frightening visage, scoops burning ashes from the fire, and throws it at the orcs!
Since the plan seems to be to run Nick does so, although he lingers at the back of the group, partly to protect Keri and partly because he knows he can get away much faster if he has to.
"To the water!" He calls.
"Oh s+**e!" one of them calls out. Three immediately take a step back into the grass.
But Potbelly seems not to have noticed his friends fleeing and steps forwards. "Wut? That supposed to scare us, isit?"
Hawkeye looks at the orcs, not quite comprehending what's going on. He's a deer in the headlights until Con spooks them. He notes them all backing down, save for the one.
Wait... Are we being threatened right now?
He surveys the scene in brief: he sees shackles hanging from the orcs' belts. He sees the body language of the party, he sees Con attempting to scare them off.
We are being threatened right now. Okay, uhh... Yeah, let's go with:
Birdman, attorney at law steps up next to Con and settles his briefcase chest back into the sand.
"Which one of you was the leader?"
He waits just long enough to not interrupt their response before adjusting his attention to the leader.
"Ok, so we're not from around here and we've got a deadly illness. How would your boss feel about you bringing an illness back to camp?"
S+@%, uh, shorter words.
"If you bring us back and everyone gets sick, you're gonna be in deep s~*! with the 'boss'."
He does air quotes for the word "boss".
He pauses just long enough for comprehension to dawn.
"And ANOTHER thing. We don't WANT to go with you. Not in shackles, that raises my hackles. Not in a box, not with a fox!"
Another pause, but he interrupts any attempt at comprehension or conversation.
"We all have SPEARS. Do you think they're for show?"
He puts one leg up on the chest a la Captain Morgan, and then levels his spear at the "leader".
"Maybe you kill us all, sure, but we outnumber you. We FOR SURE kill at least one of you, and you're the one standing out in front. Is that a risk you're willing to take? How about you? Or you? You?"
He eyes them down the length of his spear one by one to punctuate his questions.
M'ushu observes the quickly evolving situation, momentarily stunned by his companions' confusing mix of actions. He was about to slither after Con and Nick, but realizes that Keri and Vultan are standing firm and sticking to bluff their way out of the situation. It takes a second for his brain to catch up, but he decides to stand firm with Keri and Vultan.
Having a firm stance here may help defuse the situation. I may not be able to outrun these mongrels, anyway.
"You're the only one stepping up, fatso. Do you think you really have a chance against all of us? Your fat gut would be gull food, if you wanna try us all." M'ushu says as threateningly as he can to support Vultan's words. "Just go back to your chief and tell him you found nothing on the beach today. You won't have to find out what sickness we got and what we're capable of."
Potbelly takes a step back into the grass. At the same time, One Eye says, "I dunno bout this. Come on boys, let's go."
With that, the four orcs leave into the tall grass. Those of you who are tall enough can see their heads above the grass. They are leaving.
No s%&*. That actually worked?! Wowowow. Either those orcs are dumber than I thought, or...
M'ushu looks over at Keri and Vultan.
"Very impressive, you two. I'm
pretty sure you guys saved most of our lives, just now. So, what's next? I know Tamien's basically out for the count and Vultan could also use some more time to recover, but... do you guys feel safe enough to rest here for the day? I could take a book and go with someone to try to gather some herbs for Tamien."
M'ushu pauses for a moment. He looks over at Tamien sitting back down with obvious relief on his face.
"You know, I don't think you ever did say what happened to you, Tamien. Was it the puma? If so, how come you got by unscathed, Nick?"
He keeps the spear leveled until the Orcs are out of sight. Then he drops the tip into the sand. His shoulders sink, a habit from the before-times where he would loosen up intentionally when the stress level went away.
"Well. S%%@. Here, I was hoping we'd just run into some nobody-nothing village and establish a home base, or hell, maybe a happy life! You know, maybe get married and have little bird babies or something, but no! Instead, we're ACCOSTED by THREE and a HALF ORCS. This was supposed to be cool but now I'm just pissed! ...And stressed... ugh."
He lifts his spear and plants the butt in the sand. He turns away from the chest and sits down on it, his head drooping.
"Woof."
He says it with great dejection, deflating even further now that he's seated. After a moment, he raises his head and distastefully states to the party:
"I can say beyond a Shadow of a doubt that this adventure has already subverted my expectations."
He looks at M'ushu as he addresses everyone and replies, rubbing his shoulder.
"I dunno, man, my shoulder feels alright on the inside... I'm fine for now."
After M'ushu addresses Tamien, Vultan follows up.
"Tam, you good? He's right, you're looking rough."
Tamien watched the Orcs retreat with a growing smile and a wave of relief washed over him. He also looked toward Vultan, Con, and Keri.
"No, not really. But I can move if I have to. That was something else, you three." He didn't really have much of a way to express any gratitude at the moment other than words but he'd think of something later.
M'ushu drew his attention with other concerns.
"I'd like to do nothing but rest but those orcs found us today and something tells me that their chief won't be too happy when they show up empty-handed and with a story of meeting us."
"Well we got through that alright. Guess it's only fair I tell you the story now. It wasn't the puma. It was an eel."
He looked at the tall grass before shaking his head and pointing his thumb to the ocean. "Last night the tide pulled back, around Midnight I think, and there was a ruin which was exposed. Water's covering it again right now. It's a temple to a sea god or maybe just the sea, I think. I uh, I went in to check it out. Stupid, I know, but I just couldn't stop myself.
There were some murals, an alter and previously hidden set of stairs. I kept going down and in a back room that was partially submerged I noticed this reflecting in the water." he holds up his trident. "But when I grabbed it, a door suddenly shut behind me and an eel attacked me."
"If Nick hadn't come in and bashed the door down, saving my sorry hide when he did, I probably wouldn't be telling this story. I remember us fighting the eel, but it had wrapped around my leg and was biting me until I passed out. Nick killed it and stopped the bleeding before I bled out. He's a big damn hero."
Keri smiles at the praise from the others, but like Vultan, she seems to deflate once the orcs have finally left. She sits heavily on the sand and takes several slow, deep breaths to try to calm her nerves.
"We can't risk running into another threat while two of us are still so badly wounded," the elf says, looking at Vultan and Tamien. "Let's stay here until they're feeling better, but we should be ready in case the orcs come back."
She listens to Tamien's tale and looks at Nick, impressed. "Wow, nice job, Nick. I didn't know you had it in you! Maybe we should all go back to the temple tonight to explore it and see if there's anything you missed. And we'll bring the spears, of course."
She listens to Tamien's tale and looks at Nick, impressed. "Wow, nice job, Nick. I didn't know you had it in you! Maybe we should all go back to the temple tonight to explore it and see if there's anything you missed. And we'll bring the spears, of course."
"Thanks." Nick says with a shrug, apparently unmoved by the accusations of heroism. "I could go back to the temple today while its sunk - that might actually be a better idea since I'll be able to see a lot better underwater in daylight than above it at night. Still, I'm pretty sure we cleared it out, it wasn't huge. Although Tam, you found something else didn't you? On the way out? Could be important."
He pauses and then continues. "Realistically though we need a plan. We've got to find civilisation and soon. I'll go back to the temple if we all want to but I think we're best off following the coastline. Most settlements are near water and at this point I think surviving long enough to get there might give enough xp to level - which we desperately need."
"That reminds me," He adds. "I've only played Shadows once. How do you level up? Can we track it somehow? Four orcs, a puma and an eel. Close, not close, at the whim of an all-powerful entity?"
"There's no XP to track," Keri tells Nick. "Everybody levels up each time an adventure is complete. Whatever GM or force is governing the game world that were in will determine when we level up, I guess."
Tamien nodded at the suggestion. Now that the danger was over he was starting to feel the effects of the fatigue and pain again.
"Oh yeah. I'll take a look at that."
Tamien sat down near the remains of the fire, as he'd be laid up the rest of the day he decided to try and avoid moving around more than he had to. He took another look at his leg and it decidedly didn't seem like he'd have any lasting scars from where the thrashing eel had bit him.
"Thank goodness for that at least."
He pulled out the barnacle covered trinket he'd found in the temple and his thin metal multi-tool from his wallet to try and scrape away the barnacles from it.
A little spit and polish ought to help take care of this.
An hour later he started having trouble keeping his eyes open. "Wake me up if anything else crazy happens." then he settled down before drifting off to sleep.
Once Tamien falls asleep, Keri takes a seat beside Nick. "With all the craziness since we arrived, we haven't had a chance to really talk yet. Are you holding up alright? This... all of this... it's a lot to process."
Once Tamien falls asleep, Keri takes a seat beside Nick. "With all the craziness since we arrived, we haven't had a chance to really talk yet. Are you holding up alright? This... all of this... it's a lot to process."
"Less for me than you." Nick replies, nudging Keri gently. "Is it everything you ever dreamed of, or were you expecting a little less peril involved in the whole situation?" He smiles and then shrugs. "I'm fine. Processing can come in time, for now we deal with what's in front of us. No point worrying about the things we can't change. We'll be alright, and everyone back home will be too."
He wraps an arm around Keri's petite form. "Still not used to the blue skin, I have to say. Loving the swimming though. It's always been a favourite hobby and the way I can swim now is just... amazing. How about you? The tail must be a tad awkward."
Keri smiles up at Nick. "Don't get me wrong. If I had to get stuck in another body, there are worse things I could have wound up as than a pretty woman. I haven't been able to fully appreciate the change yet since we've been fighting for survival since we arrived. But I am looking forward to having some time to, ah, fully assess things."
The elf blushes a bit when Nick puts his arm around her, further driving home just how small her new body is. "The tail's a bit awkward, yeah. Horns, too. But it's not so bad."
"Given everything that might have changed I think I got off lightly." Nick replies lightly. "I can deal with being blue and having gills doesn't seem to have screwed me over so far. At least I'm not one of those creatures that can't breathe without water. That would have been a major problem. I am curious about what else we could have been though. Do you think angels were an option, or is Vultan is the closest we'll get."
Noticing Keri blush he adds teasingly, "I've not had a chance to 'fully assess' things either. Not sure much will have changed though."
"We'd have to look through the books. I remember there are cambions in one of the Demon Lord supplements--tieflings, basically--but I don't remember angels off-hand."
Keri laughs at Nick's last statement. "Yeah, I'm sure what you've got down there will be familiar enough."
The day passes by peacefully.
As the morning passes, You restock in fresh water and food. M'ushu heads into the grasses and searches for some herbs to use to apply to Tamien's wounds.
As the noon day approaches, the tide is out far enough to reveal the underwater temple.
Con is quiet throughout the day. There's a lot to think about and he's never been a people person. He listens to the others talk and has little related conversations in his mind but never says anything unless addressed directly.
His skin feels weird. His body feels weird. He'd always wondered what it was like to be this muscular. Though he wasn't overly strong now he was still much stronger than he was before.
He could feel a blanket of sadness coming on, from feeling lost and not knowing what to do. He kind of want to cry but he didn't even know if he could.
He looked at his character sheet for a long while, in between helping others with whatever tasks they were doing, hoping that he could find something useful that he'd missed before.
When it was time to go into the temple he couldn't help but point out.
"I've... Never been a strong swimmer, just so y'all know."
Keri looks up the appropriate rule. "Swimming is based on Strength, and you only sink if you get a zero or less. So you should be okay unless you have banes," she tells Con.
Though the elf is eager to explore the temple, she sees half of the group is either injured or exhausted. "We don't have to rush off right now. We can rest more until everybody is feeling better. It's up to you guys."
Nick spends almost the entire morning sleeping in an attempt to make up for the exertions of the night. It doesn't work, but he's not feeling terrible by the time the temple becomes visible again.
"I'm happy to go." He offers. "Or I can fish. Won't have enough time for both, realistically."