As night falls and the group opts to rest for the night, Elowen selects a good spot for a camp, looking for a spot unlikely to attract predators, and gathering some wild fruit to add to their meal.
When the time comes, she selects the darkest part of the night to take watch.
Elowen is far more familiar with the forest farther from town and finds a good place to make camp. The ground is soft enough to dig into to make a fairly discrete fire with minimal smoke.
Food is shared as you all relax before sleep. As low as it can get on three legs the little fennec sneaks up between Elownen and Jenkin and tries to snatch at piece of meat.
[ooc[The fennec seems to be following you all for now. It will take a while to heal and views you all as safe. You can use animal handle or intimidate to chase it off or let it hang around or make friendly with them.[/ooc]
Jenkin happily acecepts some of Penelope's snacks, especially since he's using part of his own rations to toss little bits of dried meat to the fennec. "I know, it's probably a bad idea..." he says as the little rascal makes retreats with another morsel to eat in safety. "But I just can't help it, look how cute the little guy is!"
Pounce, you ok with having a little friend? Svetlana asks
The big cat looks quizzingly at the Fennec, but doesnt seem to mind it, Svetlana tries to feed it some rations
And remembers too late she should have turned off her claws and fangs before doing so.
How will the Fennek react to the presence of essentially 1,5 large predatory cats?
You can stick around if you respect my authority Sir Pounce essentially takes command, establishing himself as the packs leader, by petting the Fenneck.
You will be fed, and some services will be required, but the 2 legs are surprisingly not-dumb for 2 legs. He transmits by a series of complicated tail movements.
Pretty nice tail btw! As his Tail intertwines with the Fennecs.
The fennec is quick to snatch up the offered bits of meat and back up at bit to eat. But not far. Tilting their head to the side and watching the thick tiger before flicking their tail in a way the implies, "Of course. Alone is bad."
The witch occupies the hours of her watch putting tasty bits of her rations in her hair and having the tendrils snake towards the fennec to lure the creature into eating.
Elowen looks up at the sound of the howl, noting how quickly it is answered by two others. It was a sound she was no stranger to, spending most of her nights in the forest, but judging from the sound, the hunting trio were probably miles away. Looking over at Svetlana and Sir Pounce, the forest shamaness settles back into her semi-relaxed vigil.
Penelope is distracted by the adorable fennec, concentrating more on making sure its chest rhythmically rises instead of what she should be watching out for. Danger.
Thankfully the morning light comes out, without anyone dying. She rises, brushing off the pine needles from her rump, then goes to wake up the others.
Three wolves heard. Quite a bit away. And I kind of doubt that they will try to get us, wolfes tend to avoid tigers.
Svetlana remarks, her features being rather Tigrish themselfs.
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The sun rises and a quick breakfast is had. Breaking down camp is routine now. Falling into a comfortable pace walking with Elowen in the lead. The Forest Eldar is a few hours away. This far away from where the Lumber Consortium has been working means the forest is fairly dense. Beams of light shoot through gaps int the trees. Walking is easier with less brush on the ground.
The weather is pleasant. Birds are chirping loudly. Three hours roll by with no real issues. The brush starts to get thicker and its slower going. Picking a winding path to meet the least resistance possible. It is growing brighter as the trees are thinning out. It's a relief when you reach a clearing.
A titanic darkwood tree dominates this clearing. Thick roots twisting across the ground. Several times taller than a temple minaret, in one direction the obviously ancient tree reaches into the sky with branches like a giant’s arms, while in the other it plumbs the earth with roots thicker than a man’s waist. Its limbs broad and strong, its bark thick and so richly colored as to almost be black, and its leaves the size of bucklers, the giant thing is less a tree and more a cathedral of boughs and branches.
The gnome regards the moss growing on the tree. "Different varieties. That's interesting." She mulls on it, trying to determine anything about the different mosses she's seeing.
That Sword is very very odd. Using some magic detection.
Svetlana casts detect magic.
"There's a sword? In the tree?" Jenkin redundantly asks, his eyes looking where Svetlana is pointing and still not seeing it. "Want me to climb up and get it?"
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Elowen stands still for a moment, staring up in reverent awe of the great darkwood titan. Stepping closer, she rests a hand gently against the weathered bark, closing her eyes for a moment and simply feeling the age and might of the majestic cathedral of the forest.
Odelai and Elowen look around the massive tree and see scraggly grey moss in the cracks of the thick bark. It seems easy enough to remove it.
Jenkin sees Elowen admiring the tree and chimes in his own opinion on the giant while he's removing his armor for the climb. "Yeah, beautiful one, isn't it? It's darkwood, so it's super valuable. Shame it's so far from town, some lumberjack could stake a small fortune on this baby if it were close enough to transport the wood!" He grabs hold of the rough bark and begins trying to scale his second tree in as many days.
Penelope is about to punch Jenkin in the arm and mouth SHHHH while her eyes dart toward Elowen, but the half monkey is already climbing the tree before her fist meets him.
She has to settle for an exasperated glower instead. Sighing, she tells the shaman "It is a lovely tree. That NO one is going to... other than crawl all over it, it seems."
Elowen's eyes open, and the glare that settles on Jenkin is one that anyone with some modicum of wisdom should fear, not that he necessarily even notices.
Odelai can only shake her head at the risks Jenkin's mouth seems to like taking. She busies herself carefully collecting grey moss from the tree, careful not to take too much from any one patch.
Jenkin's climbs up the ancient tree with practiced ease. Balanced across sturdy branches are three bodies. Largely removed of their meat. Crossbows, short swords, and a beautiful shortbow are easily spotted mangled corpses.
Odelai glances up to see Jenkin’s progress.
Son of a… She shouts, ”Jenkin! Enemy on your left!” She quickly weaves a spell. A ball of light flashes near him, hopefully illuminating and blinding the creature stalking the man.
Burning Hands (1):
Mage Armor (1):
Dancing Lights (1):
Flare (1): x
Prestidigitation (1):
Produce Flame (1):
Effects:
xxx = None
Hissing loudly at the bright light. Jenkin gets a very good look at this scaled creature. Its green and brown scales ideal for ambushes in the woods. A mouth full of sharp teeth and a dragon like face. A long sinuous body and two arms with streched out as it leaps at him.
Its long tail coils around a branch that keeps them both from hitting the ground as sharp teeth dig into Jenkin's shoulder. Holding him tightly, claws a clear threat and it lifts it scaled head to look him in the eyes. A sickly green gas rolls out of its mouth.
Looking up in surprise as the creature viciously stikes the unfortunate lumberjack, Elowen utters and incantation, drawing primal energy from the forests and funneling it into a a single wooden thorn, that grows to the size of a javelin in her hand as she prepares to throw it, watching closely for an opening.
Odelai's shout causes Penelope to jerk her head up toward Jenkin, drawing her bow and firing just to the left of him, in hopes to not hit him and only It.
Maybe a little took much to the left since it only grazed the creature.
"What... What is it?"
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"SNAKE! Big people-eating snake!" Jenkin yells down as the monster bites and takes hold of him.
He gags a bit as his yelling means he gets a mouthful of whatever venom the thing is breathing in his face, but spits the bad air back out again without any further ill effect.
You don't really have a lo of time to think when a snake with hands and claws is biting deep into the muscle of your shoulder and you're thirty feet in the air. Jenkin quickly determines, though, that staying up here will result in him being added to the bodies in the tree; accordingly, all he wants is to get DOWN as quickly as possible.
Ripping his shoulder free from the beast's jaws, Jenkin makes a possibly suicidal but certainly not any worse than his currecnt circumstances choice: he pushes himself off from the tree limb and tries to make a controlled fall to the ground.
His dive is less graceful than could be hoped; he plummets down nd lands on his feet at first, mitigating some of the fall, but his ankle rolls and he hits the ground with a loud *WUMPH*.
He groans as he goes unconscious, blood continuing to gush from his shoulder.
Odelai’s golden eyes study the beast. ”That’s a Tatzlwyrm, a relative of dragons! ‘Ware the poison breath.”
The witch considers what she can do. Her combat options are few at the moment, so she tries speaking in the hissing tongue of dragons.
”बंद करो, महान अजगर! हम आपसे लड़ना नहीं चाहते हैं। क्या आप हमारे साथ बातचीत करेंगे?”
Pounce oborony Jenkin! Bistro!
::Pounce defend Jenkins, quick! in Irriseni::
The Tiger breaks into action, moving next to Jenkin and reading a bite should the Tatzlwyrm get within its range.
Svetlana, left claw glowing with curative energies, rushes towards jenkin, shield raised, and hits him with cure light wounds.
Hissing loudly and lunging for Jenkin in his scramble to escape. Dangling while looking around. Blood spraying with a loud roar
Twisting to look a the little gnome and growling "भोजन ... मृत्यु"
Pulling back and looking ready to pounce but the serpent is clearly waiting for something.
”हमारे पास खाना है, दोस्त। देखना?”, Odelai up-ends her backpack and dumps out seven days of rations. She looks to her allies, ”He’s just hungry. If we can give him enough food, we can end this without a fight.”
She looks to the Tatzlwyrm and makes a sweeping arm gesture to include the others as she backs away from the pile of rations. ”हमारे पास और खाना है। तुम्हारे साथ साझा करना। कोई मृत्यु नहीं।”
A thin tongue rolls out to lick the blood lingering, "मांस.. खून।"
Odelai relays calmly, ”He wants meat and blood. Can any of you hunt up a deer or something? Otherwise… I think Jenkin is his preferred lunch. I’m gonna try something here, it may go… poorly.”
Odelai’s hair writhes and she throws a deadly look at the Wyrm. Her response is a guttural, threatening growl in the hissing language. ”हम तुम्हारे लिए मांस और खून का शिकार करते हैं, तुम्हें प्रतीक्षा करनी चाहिए। यदि नहीं, तो तुम अपना खून पीओगे, और हम तुम्हारा मांस खाएंगे। चुनें - भोजन की प्रतीक्षा करें या मरें।”
Me ei ole toit, aga sina oled, kui sa kuradi mölakas proovid seda veelkord!
We are not food, but you are if you f~*#ing d&$##!! try that again!
She shouts something in a harsh tounge, fangs bared and claws visible, ready to show the drakeling who the apex predator is.
Head whipping around and barring their fangs, "मांस.. खून।" Shifting while remaining coiled on the sturdy branch. Meeting Odelia's gaze and keeps it but remains still.
The witch, hair flaring like the hood of a cobra, locks eyes with the Tatzlwyrm. "वे अब तुम्हारे लिए मांस लाते हैं।"
Without shifting her gaze an inch, she says to her allies, ”Get hunting, right now. This truce only lasts for as long as I hold his gaze and he doesn’t run out of patience.”
Elowen hold her position, javelin in hand, ready to throw, should the Tatzlwyrm make the vaguest increase of aggression and seem in the act of attacking.
Penelope looks reluctant to leave Jenkin's to the mercy of the creature. "Hunting is not a run out to the store kind of activity. It takes patience and--" she stops her lecture, with effort, and then goes out and tries at least.
Jenkin groans and reopens his eyes as Svetlana's healing touch closes the worst of his wound and puts a little life back into him. "So... we're, uh, negotiating with the snake?" he groans as he sits up. "Should I go and hunt, or is it going to be angry that its 'food' is leaving?"
Odelai maintains her 'flared' posture and stare-down with the Wyrm, speaking quietly, "I think I'm on the menu now. Either you get this fellow some food or this becomes a fight... and that would be a shame. Tatzlwyrms are rare, almost never seen by mortal folk. Killing him would be a tragedy. And it may not be a coincidence that he is in this particular tree. So, while I appreciate you folks worrying about me... if you've got hunting skills, I'd appreciate it a lot more if you got this fellow something larger and more tasty to eat than me."
That thing will eat somebody else 3 days later.
Svetlana moves, together with Pounce and presumably Jenkin, to Odelais position.
That thing does consider humans to be food, I am all for preserving wildlife, but what will you tell to some boy who got orphaned by it?
”Never pull on a thread until you know what it unravels… This deep in the forest? Only lumberjacks are likely to come here. And if they try to chop down this noble tree, they are responsible for their choices. Your argument could be better made about that hobgoblin who was much closer to town and who is far more likely to run into - and possibly kill - people… at range with his bow or up close. This creature didn’t attack until Jenkin was up its tree.”
"I don't know that I should get a vote, 'cause I might not be that great in a fight right now..." Jenkin adds quietly, as he stands up and begins redonning his armor, "But just for the sake of completeness, there's already three dead people, at the least, in that tree. We're pretty far out in the woods, so it might not to get to eat them that often, but... it's clearly happened before and will happen again."
"Bodies? Human or fey? Is this another sky burial site?"
"Does it matter at this point. This is a dangerous predator, that chose prey strong enough to fight back. Such is nature, it didn't realize the flower it chose to pluck had thorns." Elowen says, not lowering her javelin.
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Meanwhile Penelope moves as quietly as a hurrying person can while looking for an animal to kill so a companion doesn't get eaten.
"I didn't get a chance to really examine them, but they were pretty mangled. Had weapons with them.. I don't think it was another sky burial."