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Savan raises his musket and casually shoots the thug between the eyes, dropping him instantly.
You recall, somewhat belatedly, reading about a gang called the Bloody Barbers in this part of Absalom.
X-23 and Sentinel move forward and slice up Red, opening a serious gash in his leg.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1
Tactical Map
Active Conditions:
------------------
Those with ** may go
Grammy Thistledown - AC 16 (18 w/shield), 17/17 (AC 18)
Jig Gnasher - AC 18, 15/15
X-23 - AC 16, 12/17
**Hon Utushi - AC 18, 21/21
Savan Genieshot - AC 18, 18/18
Blue
Zarisha - AC 18 (19 w/shield), 17/17
Red (-4)
Pink
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As Hon moves towards the end of the road, the ground beneath him suddenly opens up.
Hon manages to catch himself before dropping into a pit trap set by the miscreants. He gets to the end of the street and attempts to determine the ruffians' weakness. He doesn't quite remember anything but, judging from the eye-watering body odor exuded by the ruffians, suspects that soap and water (lots of it) might be their weakness.
No specific weakness
A ruffian wearing a dirty blue tunic spots Savan. He whirls his sling in the air and lets fly at Savan.
Disgruntled, he reloads.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1
Tactical Map
Active Conditions:
------------------
Those with ** may go
Grammy Thistledown - AC 16 (18 w/shield), 17/17 (AC 18)
Jig Gnasher - AC 18, 15/15
X-23 - AC 16, 12/17
Hon Utushi - AC 18, 21/21
Savan Genieshot - AC 18, 18/18
Blue
**Zarisha - AC 18 (19 w/shield), 17/17
Red (-4)
Pink
Zarisha draws her wand as the fight breaks out and then advances toward the melee.
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Zarisha heads into the fight. Red drops his sling and draws a War Razor. He then proceeds to try to carve a ditch in X-23 and Hon's faces.
Pink also drops his sling, draws his War Razor, runs into a flank with Red against Hon and tries to carve Hon's face.
A third ruffian, obviously the leader from his dress, runs up to Hon and also attempts to slash him.
With his free hand, he manages to grab Hon.
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 2
Tactical Map
Active Conditions:
------------------
Those with ** may go
**Grammy Thistledown - AC 16 (18 w/shield), 17/17 (AC 18)
**Jig Gnasher - AC 18, 15/15
**X-23 - AC 16, 8/17
**Hon Utushi - AC 18, 14/21 (Grabbed by Orange, FF)
**Savan Genieshot - AC 18, 18/18
Blue
Zarisha - AC 18 (19 w/shield), 17/17
Red (-4)
Pink
Orange (Grabbing Hon)
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Savan sticks his head out only long enough to shoot Blue, before ducking back to reload, and repeating the earlier process. Both shots hit Blue center-mass and Blue drops without a sound.
With extreme confidence, Grammy simply walks up to Pink and slugs him with her magically enhanced staff. The club breaks Pink's neck and he also drops.
Sentinel casually swipes Red and opens Red's throat to the environment, dropping a third ruffian. Finally, X-23 points his energy beam at the leader and hits, setting the leader's vest on fire.
"OY! This vest cost money! Something I'm going to take from your lifeless ... ummm... whatever you are!"
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COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 2
Tactical Map
Active Conditions:
------------------
Those with ** may go
Grammy Thistledown - AC 16 (18 w/shield), 17/17
**Jig Gnasher - AC 18, 15/15
X-23 - AC 16, 8/17
**Hon Utushi - AC 18, 14/21 (Grabbed by Orange, FF)
Savan Genieshot - AC 18, 18/18
**Zarisha - AC 18 (19 w/shield), 17/17
Orange (-2; Grabbing Hon)
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Hon flanks the boss with his reflection and strikes. The boss's vest (and underlying chest) get slashed.
"Oy, mate! Can we mebbe talk this over? We don't need ta do this y'know?" the leader is clearly getting flustered.
------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 2
Tactical Map
Active Conditions:
------------------
Those with ** may go
Grammy Thistledown - AC 16 (18 w/shield), 17/17
**Jig Gnasher - AC 18, 15/15
X-23 - AC 16, 8/17
Hon Utushi - AC 18, 14/21 (Grabbed by Orange, FF)
Savan Genieshot - AC 18, 18/18
**Zarisha - AC 18 (19 w/shield), 17/17
Orange (-13; Grabbing Hon)
Zarisha waves her wand and channels her will into it, launching a thin arc of electricity at the barber. "You should have thought of that before trying to mug us," she says before flinging a triangular blade at them.
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The ruffian leader screams as he sees the shuriken flying at his face. The bladed star strikes him in the throat, killing him. Shortly after, you hear another scream of terror as Wiston bolts from his hiding place and tries to flee. He tries to run past you but you manage to run him down and grab him before he can get far. Once you march him back, he takes one look at the gore-filled battleground and breaks down.
"Okay. OKAY! I confess! There is no orphanage. This was all a setup with the Bloody Barbers to get some coin. We had no idea you would be this formidable!"
As Wiston confesses, members of the City Guard arrive. Seeing the gore and bodies, they immediately demand to know what's going on.
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Wiston blubbers and confesses his role in the scam. The leader of the city guardsmen looks at you thoughtfully.
"We did receive many reports of people getting ambushed in this area. That's why I decided to investigate this myself. I'll take this one into custody. Please follow me back to the station to give your statements and perhaps receive a small reward from us."
You all troop back to the guard station and give your statements. After Wiston is booked in, the guard captain agrees to give you a small reward of 4gp for defeating this band of robbers.
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The journey to Hyrnatam was pleasant enough below the ship’s decks, though emerging into the gray skies and torrential downpour is far less pleasant. This close to the Eye of Abendego, the infamous and eternal hurricane, sunny weather would be too much to expect. The mission is simple: at the behest of the beleaguered Karil Swiftstout, find her son Ecmund and take him on a brief trek into the swamps so he has a tale to tell when he returns to the metropolises of the Inner Sea.
It doesn’t take long to find Ecmund, who soon returns to the local inn where his mother told you to meet him. The young dwarf with galvanized iron jewelry in his beard wears leather explorer’s clothing topped by a cavalier hat whose red-and-orange plume is more than a bit waterlogged. He carries a guidebook under his arms, titled Justinian’s Jungle Jaunts in gilded letters. Upon noticing new arrivals, he flashes a welcoming smile and beckons for his new companions to join him at the table and take a seat.
"Hello there—you must be my companions! Ecmund Swiftstout, pleased to meet you! I’m impressed that the mere mention of my name and promise of adventure was enough for you all to sail here, but that just means you lot have great instincts! By this time next month, they’ll be sharing our names and glories at taverns all across the Inner Sea, hah!"
"I am certain this is some cruel trick," Zarisha notes.
"The tales of... bards, indeed! That's what it was. A prominent storyteller speaks very highly of you," Zarisha says, trying to keep a sincere expression.
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You know some common types of environmental dangers that can be encountered, such as poisonous castor beans, deadly freshwater stingrays, and swarming fire hornets.
You get the wrong impression on how best to prepare for jungle travel
Ecmund swallows Zarisha's comment. "Hah! I knew it! I'll bet you heard it in Absalom even. We're going to explore this jungle here. My guidebook here has all the information we need. Better make your purchases, as we're leaving soon!"
As you're gathered around the table, the tavern keeper approaches. "It appears that some of you didn't sign the waiver rendering Mr Ecmund free from any liabilities in case you don't come back. It's pretty boilerplate stuff. The document is HERE. It seems that only Mr Jig here signed it."
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Setting off later than planned, you are only able to travel inland for a few hours before dark.
"This looks like a good place to camp. We can place our tents over there under those trees. We should break out the rations and set a watch tonight to keep us safe. I'll go set up some warning bells so that we have an advance warning if someone or something decides to disturb up tonight. I remember a trip I took some years back, we were in mosquito-infested swamps. Luckily I was able to burn this leaf and drive them off, otherwise we would have been sucked dry. Then there was this other time when this pack of wolves tried to eat all our food. We drove them off but most of the food was spoiled and we couldn't eat them! So I had to rely on my wits and remembered which plants to eat. We managed to survive but it wasn't pleasant. How about you?! What adventures have you had?! I'll want to chronicle them for posterity. By the way, should we set up watches every hour?"
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Grammy will use her knowledge of nature to try and fact-check what he is saying. Nature +9
"Trading shifts off every hour might be a little overdoing it . . . I suggest we each take two or three hour respites. Let the spellcasters sleep the entire time to get the spells back. Not me o'course, I've not cast naught but cantrips today, so ol' Grammy can keep watch."
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Grammy will take either first or last, she has low light vision but can’t see in the dark
”Oh hunny, by the way that leaf won’t do nothing for the mosquitos. I know which herb you were burning and this one has a very similar leaf, but no, that won’t keep the mosquitos away. Here, eat this fruit. It make you sweat a substance that mosquitos dislike.”
She then goes to take watch. You might hear her whispering under her breath Wolves that instantly spoil food? Malarkey.
"I can take dusk or dawn, since I can't see further than our fire in the dark," Zarisha adds. "Unless you feel I need my beauty sleep. Should I be taking offense?"
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The night is uneventful, though Zarisha hears rustling in the bushes around camp. She does not find anything when she approaches the area, however. The next morning, Zarisha directs you to the place where she heard the rustling.
DC 14 Society to identify the biped
DC 10 Nature to identify the paws
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[ooc]Grammy doesn't have society
"Odd, someone was here last night hiding in this bushes. Some . . . person. Hobgoblin, human, something. Also their pet cat. And by pet cat I mean lion or tiger or something. Maybe a large leopard. None of which are indigenous to this area I believe, hence . . . pet."
Grammy will point out the tracks.
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Ecmund heads over to the tracks. "I wonder what they are" he muses. He looks at the tracks, then leafs through his book, before looking at the tracks again. Turning back to you, he says "Shall we go? Is there anything you need to do?"
Ecmund seems to be eager to be off. His rucksack is packed and his ever-present guidebook is in hand. He looks dismissively at the smoldering campfire. "That fire shouldn't be a problem. My guidebook says that it will go out eventually in this weather."
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"Ecmund, surely you've heard the old adage that problems that go away by themselves tend to come back by themselves. Best be safer than sorry and ACTUALLY TAKE CARE OF IT. Plus, y'know, giant charcoal firepits aren't native to the natural environment, so even if the fire is out, it's not good for the local environment to keep it here".
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Ecmund looks a bit startled at Grammy's tight voice. "Are you sure? I mean, I know you're a druid and all, and you've got this holier-than-thou attitude about being one with nature and balance, but my guidebook, which wasn't cheap, let me tell you, says that there is no problem with leaving smoldering fires burn out, especially in wet weather like this. I mean, we'd be wasting time having to put it out and make sure the ashes are cold and all that. We could be exploring the jungle by now."
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Grammy yanks the book from Ecmund and turns to next page to where the book says Still, most creatures are not used to eating charcoal, and it can cause serious environmental damage if too many firepits are left unattended. It is thus highly recommended you clean up after yourself.
She then points down to the authors section where it mentions three or four authors and then With additional special consulting thanks to Grizmerelda 'Grammy' Thistledown of Lastwall.
She then shoves the book back at Ecmund and starts cleaning up camp grumbling under he breath about 'Who's high and mighty now?'
"I'm pretty sure dumping your left over coffee on it and flipping it over with a shovel would be faster than all this debate about whether not to do it," Zarisha comments as she finishes packing her supplies.
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Ecmund blinks at the reference and regards Grammy with what could only be described as awe. He proceeds to clean up the camp and ensure that the fire is well and truly out before setting off.
Ecmund breaks camp and begins to lead you southeast. The journey gives you the rare opportunity to soak in the beauty of an equatorial jungle. Ecmund keeps his head in his guidebook and doesn't really pay attention to his surroundings.
He leads you under a tree and blunders into a massive ant colony. Bullet ants and other insects are about to drop from the trees or climb all over you.
You both take a -1 penalty to your checks due to your unpreparedness (aka crit fail on the RK check earlier).