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During our travels anytime it's sunny or raining Jek deploys an autoshade umbrella, "Wish I could have afforded this back on Verces where the sun never sets."
As we travel down the river Jkekeesp an eye out for good places to camp.
"It could be weeks before we get rescued, we'll need to find a good place to shelter out of the storms, that monument-like structure I saw might be such a place. If we can find the probe is there anyways to use it to send a signal?"
While setting up camp, having noticed the local plants have adapted to the stormes, Jek looks for large palm-like leaves that might help add protection to the tents and also be used to shade or protect us while on the rafts. "Do we have enough tents for everyone?
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“Think we should have enough tents. I have one of my own.” they say, pulling a tent with Veskarium branding out of their pack. “We recovered a total of three tents from the ship as well.”
“If we wanted to, I think we could even pitch one of the tents to partially protect Donkey.”
Saying that, they start setting up camp.
Looking towards Triage, they ask “Do the crab carapaces retain any of their energy resistance after death? If they do, we may want to collect some to help protect our shelters.”
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Jek tests some of the less animated plant-life for helping protect the tents. While the materials might be useful being their own structure, the leaves is releasing a corrosive substance. While it isn't immediately destructive, it would certain cause more damage to the tents than it could prevent.
Reviewing the crab carapace it doesn't seem to have any special resistance to energy resistance anymore, not anymore than building a structure of earth.
With the four tents between the party the group is able to set up camp. Some hours into your sleep, a few of you stir in response a dull roar and growing light unlike the star-light you have seen from Iski's star. The tents ripple and struggle as wind begins to buffet them and you see fiery, red light just outside the tents.
Looking outside you see the air filled with streaks of erratic waves of flame. Each of the bits of fire passes through the air quickly, burning away in an instant but searing the area around you. The heat is overbearing outside the tents and the tents are the nearest and best defense against the hostile weather. Moving now would be deadlier than remaining in place within your camp.
The party is able to continue resting, as much as they can, but the storm outside rages for over three hours before finally abating. Near the end the fire is replaced with arcs of lightning, for the last few minutes before some darkness cloaks over the area.
Reviewing the campsite, you find that the plant-life has caught fire, but it does not spread. Some of the more burnt leaves are discarded from branches while other flames naturally are extinguished.
All of your tents show some damage, but Donkey's tent as well as Ikmanji's show significant damage from the fire storm. They were able to protect the team for the duration of the storm, but are now broken and without repair wouldn't be able to provide any aid against another storm.
The flora has survived and beings the healing process while you are allowed to finish out the night as you recover from today's events as well.
The morning also brings a new discovery. Most, if not all of you, have developed rashes across portions of your skin or body. It isn't too debilitating, but it certainly isn't comfortable as it causes mild irritation even as you pack up camp.
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Jek noticing the animated motion of the plant life, turns to Djakar, "Djakar, getting some video to document these strange plants might be useful for future exploration of this planet."
Jek looks for some straight trees the right size to make spears. "Looks like the rivers got some creature in it that look dangerous, might help to fight them from the raft if we had some speers, or help to keep them away from the raft."
Jek looks over the damaged tents. "Looks like we need a plan b for shelters soon."
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In the morning light, Ikmanji inspects the damage to his tent. They carefully collect the broken tent and store it. “We may need to figure out a way to patch or repair the tents.”
At mention of getting video, Ikmanji points out “I don’t think we have a way to recharge our equipment. Keep that in mind any time you use batteries.”
Ikmanji is fine with whatever order the group agrees to for the rafts.
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Triage finds the group healthy aside from the irritating rashes. Triage can get more information if necessary from the Chemalyzer Readings , but the poison is not progressing past a mild irritant. Donkey is showing some signs of soreness from fitting the raft, but breaks should hopefully keep that from proceeding into a worse condition.
The party is able to store the broken tents in the chance they can be repaired, but that would take a repair spell or specialized tools.
* * * * *
Within half an hour of you setting off onto the river, Donkey is chittering their mandibles aggressively toward the water. With the party on alert you quickly see it again, it is the back of another eel cresting the water.
Rather than pass below though, this one rushes through the water, its body forming a spiral as it slices through water toward the front boat. The eels fang filled mouth is bared wide as it looks to take a meal!
Triage
Iski Eel (partially underwater)
Djakar
Ikmanji
Grognard
Jek
The shot cuts through the water and strikes the giant eel! The inhibitor is injected into the beast, but you see it shrug off the fatigue as it launches through the water toward Ikmanji and Triage!
The jaw sink into Triage, but the bow is minor as can be expected from the crushing force. The creature tries to grab and pull Triage into the water, but it is barely unable to get a hold over the elven biohacker.
Djakar
Ikmanji
Grognard
Jek
Boat Movement
Triage (2/12 SP)
Iski Eel (4 damage)
The eel's hide and speed make it a difficult target. Even with that Grognard is able to land a shot along with Ikmanji with the aid of Djakar's direction.
The shots wound the creature, but do little to slow it as it snaps largest of the potential meals, Donkey!
The creature grabs hold of Donkey, completely immobilizing the tightly confined mount. The eel then beings to try to pull Donkey off of the boat into the water!
Djakar
Ikmanji
Grognard
. Donkey (20/30 HP; pinned)
Jek
Triage (2/12 SP)
Boat Movement
Iski Eel (15 damage)
Jek takes hold of a nearby bit of cast off material from a tree and launches it at the eel. The blow connects with the creature in the head and severally dazes it.
It is able to avoid a strike from Ikmanji, but it has a start as Grognard begins bellow out from behind, unleashing a flurry of fire on the creature. The first shot pierces straight through the creature and the second shot just misses as the eel flails about to avoid an easy shot.
Even then, the eel is in a desperate situation as it bleeds from the set of new wounds it has gained. It struggles for a moment trying to pull Donkey into the water, but failing that it quickly gives up this hunt for easier prey. It dives into the water and attempts to escape as instincts tell it that it wouldn't survive another round contending with the group.
That situation was quite dire, but a set of lucky shots were key to turning the battle in your favor. A trade a least from the previous luck on your former starship.
The party is able to heal and tend to the wounds as you go about rest of the travel for the day. As you near the end of the day, it is becoming more apparent from the datapad that the river will not lead you straight into the probe landing site. The river is still aiding with your journey time though, but by the end of the next day of traveling, you would likely need to switch to traveling by foot to continue toward the landing site.
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Ikmanji takes on last parting shot at the creature as it flees. It misses by a wide margin.
“Those river creatures are hard to hit!” they observe as it gets away.
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Ikmanji continues to steer the raft through the rest of the day. They keep an eye out for changes in the weather patterns as getting caught in a storm while on the river doesn’t appeal to them.
“So one more day of travel on the river, then abandon the rafts in order to make it to the probe site? Try to find some sort of shelter there?”
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"We haven't seen any signs of advanced societies here yet. If the monument I saw is from a lower tech society out of nessicty it's likely near the river. It might be our best hope for a good shelter and looked to be close to the probe site as well, it's also a visible place a rescue party might spot."
Jek continues looking at the datapad, trying to locate here the monument might be, then offer the date pad around. "Anyone else want to have a look?"
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When Jek offers the datapad to them, Ikmanji says “Wouldn’t know what to do with it. Be a waste of battery to hand it to me.”
“As for travel, I don’t know of any reason it would be better to travel at night or day other than some of you can’t see in the dark. Daylight travel is fine with me.”
“Grognard should probably swap positions with me on the rafts. They would be better able to calm Donkey if the need arose.”
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Grognard happily takes the raft with Donkey and pampers her for the rest of the ride.
As they move onward, he licks his finger and sticks it up in the air, holding it for nearly a minute. Then he pauses and looks far into the distance into the foliage. "Ahll take a look at the data Jek... Thankie."
"Ah say the key is to hunker down when th' storm's on us, and plan tae march when it lets up. If ah could have a guess th' wildlife can sense a storm brewin' and may be more dangerous and desperate for a meal right before."
He hands the datapad back and nods in thanks.
When the party prepares to make camp, he and Donkey do their best to forage for food.
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While Grognard checks the weather Jek takes one last look at the data pad and considers the land around them to plot a course to the probe while listing to any advice others have to add.
Communalism
[b]"Think this might be our best path to the probe from here."[b/] Jek draws a map in the sand by the river.
Jek joins the foraging for food
Grognard and Jake are able to find some food along the river travel from the water. However the underwater plant-life is tough and hard to make work into a meal and the fauna present issues like toxic barbs that need to be dealt with carefully else subject the party to defensive poisons.
Even still the pair manage to keep the party from having to consume R2E rations for another day.
Harder still is predicting the weather on Iski. From what Grognard is able to gather from the day in orbit and the last two on the surface, the planetary storms are continuously active and shift over the entire surface of the planet. With a few more days there might be better sense of the weather patterns, but Grognard at least can tell the group is likely to contend with a few hours of storms each day.
You are able to get through this day avoiding storms during your travels. Once you rest you can tend to Donkey's wounds at your leisure. Once more though, in a similar situation to the previous evening, a fire storm erupts outside your tents cutting into the dark of night. This one thankfully only lasts an hour before moving on.
Two of the tents are once again broken following the storm. That requires a bit of Grognard's attention to fix the fire damage before moving on the next day.
The new day is no more comfortable on this planet. The rashes that have appear over the party haven't spread further, but they haven't abated either.
Shortly after setting out on the river, the morning sky darkens as the storm begins to pass overhead, announcing itself with the flash of lightning and a boom of thunder.
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When they notice signs of an oncoming storm, Ikmanji suggests they stop and take shelter.
Their preference would be to set up the tents if there is time to do so. They would also recommend taking the time to repair any broken tents before resuming travel so that the tents are are always available.
They only have two dozen hours of environmental protecting in their suit. Since the group may be stranded here for multiple weeks, they think it unlikely that the environmental protections would last the whole time if they were used for every storm.
The party quickly pulls upon the short as the air becomes charged. Arcs of electricity shoot out between leaves of the plant-life, but the party quickly sets up tents and secures themselves away.
The party doesn't need to wait long as thankfully the electrical storm is short and over within the hour.
One of the tents shows damage from the storm and requires another use of mending magic. You are able to press forward across the river for the rest of the day and avoid other storms. Along the way you see a large creature with matted fur and sharp claws fighting one of the Iski eels. In a quick and vicious battle the mammalian creature is victorious. As it pulls the eel into the jungle though, a lithe quadruped leaps from hiding in the wounds and snatches away the eel, stealing away the other creature's meal.
The lithe thief retreats into the trees with prize in tow and the other creature is in chase giving bellowing roars that are audible for several minutes before becoming inaudible over the sounds of the jungle.
Due to the delays from repairs and taking shelter, you are still a few miles away from the optimal point to start traveling by land, but at this point finishing the river route is likely only to gain you half an hour of time at best.
In any case, as you set up camp, accounting must be taken for how the party will travel by land. Grognard would be setting the pace for the party if he were not mounted for the journey. Your experts estimate that you might be able to get to the probe in three days, four if there is any delay from camping or setting a slower pace.
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“Do we haul the rafts with us overland or find someplace to stow them? If we try to stow them, there is a chance an animal would find them and damage them. Probably could minimize the risk by digging a shallow hole to store them in.”
“If we think we will be traveling more via a different river, then we probably should take them with us.”
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"we'll have less time to forage traveling over land if we start eating our rations it would save time and reduce how much we have to carry. We'll have to be on guard walking looks like the things in the jungle are more dangerous than the ones in the water, did anyone else get a good look at them? What do you think a good marching order would be? If I'm in the middle then I can easily heal the whole group at one time if needed."
After setting up camp while eating dinner. "Anyone know any good scary stories, back in boot camp our Vesk drill Sargent liked to tell scary stories before a march, he said it helped keep people on guard. Some of his stories were so gory that it kept you from wanting to eat as well."
Grognard studies the creatures and none match any species that from other planets. He is able to tell that each of the creatures have been exceptionally aggressive and well suited for survival on this harsh climate. Watching and monitoring this encounter and others, Grognard isn't able to determine if there is an apex predator among the creatures he has seen, if there is even one.
Packing the rafts and heading deeper in land leads your team through more trackless, untamed jungle. Biting insects have found you following your extraction from the river and are making the journey unpleasant as they sting and strike for several hours of travel.
As the group heads into a relatively clear crossroads, despite the biting insects, most of the party catches sight of a large creature within the trees. It appears to be part of the foliage, but upon a more focused examination it is a single long wrapped plant-flesh that has the approximate shape of a lengthy snake with a closed flytrap maw at the end. . It hangs it's length along the branches, only barely moving as it gives the slightest of twitches that didn't match the flowing wind.
Wary of the natural flora, the team backs up a bit and doubles back through the trees until finding another path through the dense jungle.
You all move cautiously as the sounds of wildlife fighting each other echoes through the jungle. Thankfully none of the vicious fauna lunges at the party.
At the end of the first full day of travel across the ground, the party is just able to start putting up camp when another brief firestorm fills the skies.
One more tent has seared burns at the end of the storm. Even after various mendings the weathering each of the tents have taken over just the days on Iski is obvious. The magic is keeping them functional though.
The next day passing through the jungle is unusually calm as the group makes it through both the day and the night without a storm.
The day after makes for a more difficult day of travel though as the jungle flora has taken this brief period and is now flourishing. Although it is clear that even the plants are contending with one another as the roots reach across the jungle floor below other trees and plants.
Your sixth day on planet follows a similar pattern some of you have grown to expect. A few hours after you set off in the morning you are beset by another fire storm. Some of the party suffers from minor burns as you set up your tents again.
The party is delayed another pair of hours and then some as the group holds for Grognard to mend the tents before pushing forward.
As he does so, there is sound of a injured creature a short distance from your impromptu camp. It comes from a tiny creature, no more than a foot long that seems to have suffered worse from the recent storm. It has short, white and brown mottled fur with short ears and large eyes. It slowly nudges away from you as it takes notice of your presence.