As the approaching zombie slips and stumbles on the freshly created ice, Ankha takes advantage of the opportunity with another quick swish of her blade, its momentum cutting a swath through their foes. But the foul creatures press on unfazed, battering and grappling her with their slimy tentacles
“Ooh! That tickles! But not in a good way! Get it off of me!”
"Agile zombies? Who would have thought..." Braxton maneuvers around and handily skewers the nautiloidian brain-scrambler.
Ku'Hania gestures, as crystals of ice begin to coalesce on the furthers of the enemies, slowly encasing its legs.
Ankha takes a step back to have more room to maneuver her polearm, then cuts a sharp downward stroke against the zombie threatening Ku’Hania.
Let's go with Defensive Abilities.
I think she gets AoOs against all of them?
The combined damage from the three is in fact enough to free Ankha from her grappler, and her quick reactions are enough to put down two more of the zombie mounts. The shell that drops to the ground after the zombie is felled is too nimble (and small) for her follow up strike to connect with.
The two shells and the last remaining zombie continue their advance.
Init, Round 3:
22- Them
15- Becky
11- Ankha
9- Braxton
5- Ku'Hania
Sweeping her fauchard back and forth protectively, Ankha tries to slow the advance of the nautilus shells and ward off their attack on Ku’Hania, but their tentacles are too numerous and too quick for her to defend against all at once. Stepping back, she tries to cleave her blade through the greenish one clinging to the half-elf.
"I never liked crustaceans!" Braxton shouts as he skewers the headcrab.
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"And I never liked aberrations!" Becky yells with a stab of her own. "Which these things technically are...."
for
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As the shell tries to latch onto Ku'Hania it is met by her most capable personal defense as Haplo latches onto the offending creature, delivering his venomous bite.
Meanwhile the shamaness takes a step forward, driving her spear into the remaining zombie.
The might of the party acting in concert together is enough to slice down the remaining zombies and smash the shells of the rest of the incutilis ambush party. The corpses and shell pieces fall to the ground, most of it getting swept away in the river.
Unfortunately for any treasure-minded amongst you, these lonely victims of horrific shell monsters weren't carrying any loot at the time they fell for the trap that you did not.
“Is everyone okay?” Ankha asks, turning to check concernedly on the others while blood runs down her own arm. Not seeing any wounds on her comrades, she takes a minute to collect samples from the strange creatures, snipping off a tentacle here and prying off a shell fragment there, bottling them in vials for further research. “I guess it should be safe to cross the river here now? Shall we continue on to find Vriskirsa?”
"I don't think anyone else was harmed." Ku'Hania replies, taking stock of everyone. "Are you alright?"
Ankha waves off Ku’Hania’s concern with a cheerful smile. “Oh, don’t worry about me—it’s just a flesh wound. I’ve had worse.” She brushes off some of the blood with water from the river. “If everyone else is fine we should cross and head on.”
Becky gets out her almost expended, half-broken healing wand and gives Ankha a tap. "Whoa! Guess it's not quite dead yet! Neat!"
Smiling at Becky's response to Ankha dismissing her injuries, Ku'Hania nods before moving forward to cross the river.
"Let's add shellfish to the list of things on this island that should not be eaten." At this rate, nothing will be safe for consumption... "Shame about this lot. That's why you need a good hat, Becks. Keep the brain crabs away."
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Becky nods at Braxton's sage words, tipping her new hat a bit in silent salute. Then she hangs back a moment, further studying the remains of the incutilus' meat puppets.
"Do you think maybe they were original colonists from Talmandor's Bounty?" she asks aloud.
The corpses don't match any of the details you'd expect from colonists, instead seeming to be more experienced sailors. Perhaps even pirates or corsairs, given their clothing and weapons (which aren't notable). Becky is able to identify some markings related to Cheliax, though they are a couple years out of date with current navy insignia.
That over with, the party continues on their path towards the cave of the water naga. The journey on foot takes you longer than it would by boat, but is perhaps safer and better for your purposes of surveying the island. The next length of the journey is uneventful minus the normal complications with jungle travel, all sorts of insects, thick untamed vegetation, and the swampy weather making the trip less than idyllic.
A handful of hours trekking through the jungle leads you to a break in the trees, and the sight surprises more than you'd expect it to. A long sloping rise leads up for surely close to a mile up beyond what you can see clearly. Any path you can see that might potentially lead up the slope looks extremely dangerous, with jagged obsidian rock shales splattering the mountain side.
The natural trail you're following from the locathath camp to the naga's cave swings wide left of the sloping rise, hemming closer to the river and avoiding the climb up.
"I hear that some folks feel the need to climb mountains 'just because they're there.' Not me--I prefer to go around them when I encounter them."
“Thanks Rebecca,” Ankha smiles gratefully as the bard completely heals the rest of her wounds. She nods vigorously in agreement with the idea to go around the mountain and avoid the climb. "I think it's best if we keep following this natural trail around."
"Agreed, we can always explore that later, once we have a better grasp of the whole area." Ku'Hania concurs.
The path you chose to blaze across the island continues beyond the dangerous-looking mountain side, swinging back to the river that cuts through the center of Ancorato before turning towards the eastern coast and the naga's cave.
A strange sight soon interrupts your 'peaceful' journey through the jungle: you climb up a high earthen ridge covered in scrubby vegetation, which soon gives way to a steep descent thick with tall, ancient oak trees of a strange, bone-white coloration. The vibrant, scarlet foliage of these trees gives the impression that the entire forest is aflame. At the center of the bowl-shaped valley stands a massive white tree with bowed branches like those of a weeping willow, but feathered with long, vibrant, red leaves.
The trees on the outskirts of the crater forest all have that strange, almost bone-colored white bark around the same shade as the singular massive tree in the middle of the crater. Closer inspection reveals these strange white trees actually weep a dark crimson sap, giving the impression that the trees are bleeding.
You think back to Ramona asking you to mark sites for establishing lumber camps, but just gazing over the tops of the scarlet treetops gives you an eerie feeling that this strange forest may be full of things that the average lumberjack couldn't handle.
As they crest the rise, Ku'Hania's eyes widen at the stunning yet unsettling sight of the bone-white trees with their crimson leaves and oozing sap. She searches her memory for anything related to such strange plant life, rumored to exist here or elsewhere.
“Ooh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen trees like that before! Or have I?” Ankha’s brow furrows as she studies the peculiar forest.
Neither Ku'Hania nor Ankha has ever actually even heard of trees like these, let alone seen them. A shallow investigation reveals that the sap isn't actually blood, just a thick blood-red viscous liquid that has some of the properties of blood.
The path to the naga's cave does indeed go through this bleeding forest, unfortunately for you. Such a creepy place! Ankha is near 100% sure that there will be all sorts of brand new interesting ingredients in such a strange forest as this.
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Ankha shrugs and shakes her head with a beaming smile. “Nope, this is all completely new! How lucky we are that our path goes straight through here! Just think of all the interesting and useful samples we can collect—we’ll have ingredients that no one has ever seen before!” With bright, excited eyes she retrieves a brace of empty vials, as well as one of her extracts, and heads down into the strange crater.
“Early in my research I tried using various elements of trees to extend the human lifespan—they’re a natural choice, since trees live even longer than elves—but not surprisingly, plant physiology is much harder to translate and transplant into a human. It’s much easier to use parts from another humanoid, though I must admit that trees make a lot less fuss and noise when you cut off a limb.”
She downs the extract, having enough sense to take at least some precautions before approaching the nearest tree. “But maybe I was just using the wrong type of tree! Imagine what I might be able to do with these!” She scoops some of the thick red sap into one vial, and scrapes off some bone white bark into another, before eagerly following the path towards the massive tree in the middle.
"Hmm." Braxton grunts. "I get the feeling we are going to regret not taking the watery way by the time we're through here." The sailor puts a muzzle on Blaudon the Annihilator to prevent him from eating any of the weird plants. "Well! We do need lumber, and this white wood may have unusual properties making valuable for export. Shall we?"