I understand, and thank you for the opportunity. Whatever happens, good luck to you.
To everyone else in the group, it was good playing with you. Take care.
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Real life comes first, as always. Take however long that you need, and good luck.
"Well, as dust-ups go, this one wasn't too bad," Eizzach admits, settling down near the fire. [B]"It was over quickly enough and we seem to have gotten a meal out of it. Incidentally, I'll have some of that claw meat. Shame we don't have any butter or a lemon wedge, mind, but you can't expect to plan for everything."
"Well, if life was easy, it wouldn't be as much fun!" While moving to a secure position, Eizzach lobs another bomb at the creature, this one aimed dead center of its mass.
A few seconds of fiddling with a catalyst and Eizzach sends a sparking bomb sailing over the body of the crab. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
"Forward, then, and let's hope if we regret this decision later on, that we'll at least have had the luxury of being alive long enough to do so."
As the group moves onward, Eizzach shades his eyes from the sun's glare with on hand as he tries to keep a lookout for anything suspicious.
"I suppose that's worth a try," Eizzach concedes to the halfling. "Assuming that the good captain is still breathing, that is. Still, morbid as it is to say, even the presence of a body can at least answer one question about what happened to him."
"Life is full of surprises," Eizzach muses, "there's just no guarantee that we'll like any of them. Speaking of which, what do you think the odds are that we'll run into that creature that's been leaving tracks about the island? I'm hoping we can at least get the camp set up before the misfortune befalls of having it stumble upon us."
Eizzach's shoulders bear a much more modest load this time around; he doesn't have an extract active this time, and the whole group is available now to distribute the weight of the gear. "Shall we be off?"
"I should think so," Eizzach replied. "If we want to ensure that we're set up by nightfall we'd best be setting off bright and early. Everyone else in agreement?"
Eizzach wakes up for his share of the watch period before the dawn, where he can spare the time to prepare his extracts for the day while on lookout. The past night's sleep had him feeling much improved, and his rash from the viper needle plant had all but disappeared.
"Last shift for me, then, same as last time," Eizzach says, settling down by the fire himself. "Hopefully this blasted rash will clear up by then." "Speaking of which, sorry that I couldn't help you much, lad," he says to Malthu. "I'll give it another go tomorrow."
"Agreed. Hopefully we'll make it back before too long." Beginning to feel a bit better, Eizzach had taken a brief interlude to see to Malthu's treatment.
"Good thinking, Yanistah. I happen to have some right--ah, here we are..." He gingerly hands the Shoanti woman the items as well as a broad strip of sailcloth for writing upon, and is careful not to let his spreading rash come into contact with them as he does so. "I'm afraid that among my many talents, mapmaking isn't one of them, though."
The gnome looks even more ill for a moment, and then politely excuses himself from the group to seek some nearby shade. While there he busies himself with the contents of his satchel, and the smell of medicine wafts on the breeze from his direction.
Oh, no worries; I just caught you posting here and figured it had been overlooked by accident. In any case, thanks for bumping up your reply to today. I'll try and wait longer for GM gameplay posts in the future, and will attempt the Heal check tomorrow.
GM Jammin', sorry to be a broken record, but would a Heal check help Eizzach or Malthu at this point? Any mechanical penalties from the poison that we should know about?
"Sounds reasonable enough," Eizzach admits. "Especially since we've yet to discover what manner of creature we're sharing this part of the island with."
Eizzach frowns as he examines the rash on his skin, obviously in discomfort. "Frankly my dear, I don't think so," he admits honestly to Yanistah. "Damned fool that I am, I must have nicked myself on those thorns." GM Jammin': Would a Heal check to treat myself make any difference? Also, are there any mechanical penalties that I should be aware of?
Sorry to hear that, man. We understand, go see to your family.
Eizzach smiles as he watches the others begin to move on the bush with gusto. "Well, when in Oppara," he says, removing the sickle he carries for just such a purpose and kneeling down to help with the harvest.
"I resign myself to my fate, then." he answers Yanistah. "And as for your earlier query, while I would like to know where those tracks lead, we shouldn't stray to far from our intended way back. If you need a drink, we might as well head for the river."
"I'd bet you'd get along great with our bouncers Mr. Bitters." "Perhaps, Miss Lalaru. Incidentally," he adds gently, "it's 'Bitterbalm'; no offense taken, though."
"It's not all that it's cracked up to be," he says conversationally to the mermaid. "I've seen many a companion lose a hand or other body part to an over-eager ransacking."
Eizzach give a half-sarcastic clap at Yanistah's and Lalaru's impromptu performance. "Bravo. You two should take that one on the road to Andoren. In the meanwhile, 'Cap'n,' do you think that it's safe to proceed to the campsite?"
Eizzach shades his eyes from the sun's glare and points in the direction of the beach. "I'm not the only one seeing that campsite, am I? There's someone else here! Or at least, someone was here recently; I would think the remains of a camp would be lost to the elements after too long a time."
"Sounds like a reasonable course of action to me. Let's get to it."
"Neat trick," the gnome says admirably. "Let's see what there is to see."
Eizzach thinks about it briefly. "Tell you what: get someone down there first, then we can try that. I don't want to be without some sort of a safety net in case that rope breaks."
"Oh you don't have to worry about that Mr. Bitters, I can give you a lift." "Much appreciated, miss. If it comes to that, I may have to take you up on that offer." *********************** It looks like it is feasible to get down there. I imagine those of you with longer limbs are better climbers. I will let you go first, while I keep an eye out. "Four eyes are better than two. I'll lend you a hand until they're partway down. Worst case scenario is that they'll have to catch us small folk." He squints past his lenses to get a better look at their surroundings.
"Aye, definitely," he adds to the halfling's comment. "We should be so fortunate to spot it before it spies us. As for the wreck, you ladies are welcome to swim over and have a look, but I'm afraid that I would just be a liability if I tried to take to the water after you. Maybe you should check it out when there are more able-bodied folk present than Vazio and myself."
"Not in my bag of tricks, I'm afraid," Eizzach replies to Nichelle. "The best I can offer is a moist towlette and some soap. But it looks like Gelik has the matter well in hand, so that's alright." He removes and unwraps a ration bar from his pack--some odd concoction that looks halfway between shortbread and granola without being either--breaks off a piece, and and offers it up to the others while chewing his own. "Fancy a bit of breakfast before we move out? I've only got a week's worth of this stuff, so we might want to conserve most of it if our foraging turns up empty. Still, this'll get you through the sunrise at least."
Given that this is play-by-post, I would think it would be easier to let the GM sort it out rather than micro-manage it. But I also agree with Nichelle that we should defer to the party members with survival ranks.
"And what about you, Master Eizzach? You look like someone who must have quite a few stories to tell about his adventures." "Oh, I've been abound here and there, through I do my best to keep me nose clean--pass that flask over here, will you darlin'--" He pauses to take a swig and wipe his mouth clean on his coat sleeve. "That's the stuff--anyways, I'm more of a background character in my own adventures. That is, I stand in the background and patch up the more exciting folk when they get themselves all tore up through being excitable. About a year back, for instance, I did a stint with Mad Malagar's Reavers as they decided to skirt the Eye of Abendego in order to track down Quilis'qo, a kraken that lost two tentacles when it it tried to take on the Master of Gales head-on at Tempest Cay. We were under contract and..." The gnome continues his tale on into the night as his listeners start to drift off one by one. ******************************
"Agreed. I'd like to know the boundaries of this island. Maybe with luck we can find someplace worth constructing a sign to show that we landed here."
Malthu: Understood. Feeling better comes first. Nichelle: Yeah, sorry here too. I'll try to refrain from blue posting in the gameplay thread unless there's a character post to go with it.
"And sooner rather than later, hopefully." Eizzach stops fiddling with his satchel and leans in to warm his hands by the fire. "I'll take last watch if it's alright with everyone. I could use the time in the early morning to prepare my extracts anyway."
I've had Eizzach refrain from commenting so far because he's still busy with Xabala cooking up that bodybalm and won't be able to quit until we get the results of that check. But the way I see it, he's not going to agree with threatening Sasha (or any other member of the group for that matter) with imprisonment merely for refusing to help out. Going even further, he won't even refuse to provide aid, food or shelter to anyone who chooses not to help. He will, however, vocally disapprove of those who are able-bodied and refuse to pull their weight in a crisis such as this. He'll be persistent about this, but ultimately will wait for the offending party to come around on their own. Also, even though he's a Sarenite himself he would probably be more likely to concede Yanistah's point on this rather than Malthu's. While we're at it, here are my votes for the campsite roles: Defender: Ishirou
"If you insist. Just don't push yourself too hard, for the sake of us all. I'd prefer not to be the only healer in the group if I can help it; it's not wise to work without backup." With that issue addressed, they can get to work. Removing several helpful tools from his satchel, such as a motar, pestel, and miniature scale, Eizzach begins crafting the bodybalm with assistance from Xabala and Bindi.
While the others are busy, Eizzach lays out bundles of herbs on a sheet of sailcloth and begins preparing them for long-term storage. He looks over at the half-ekujae woman with concern. "Well, seems to me we've got enough here to make either a dose of bodybalm, bloodblock, or soothesyrup, but only one, so we've got a choice on our hands. Soothesyrup's the easiest to make, not a whole lot of chance of screwing that up, but all it's really good for is to help prevent nausea for an hour after taking it. Bodybalm and bloodblock are harder to create, but are more useful in a pinch, as they can treat poison and disease or to assist in first aid or treating deadly wounds, respectively. What do you think, Xabala?" He takes a long look at the state of Xabala's eyes. "Miss Kybwa'ka, not that you asked for my opinion, but you're not looking too good there. You try and force yourself awake much longer and that monkey of yours is going to be a bigger asset to the group than you'll be. Are you sure that you don't want to sit this one out and get some shut-eye?"
Eizzach had spent the first hour of the four-hour period making himself useful while his extract of ant haul was still active. Lifting gear and bodies, digging, or doing whatever else required a strong back--anything that needs doing. Once his extract had worn off, Eizzach went to assist Xabala in examining the nearby plants for useful herbs and healing the others.
While Lalaru and Nichelle talk, Eizzach listens in as he assists Yanistah and the others in burying the bodies. "A Pathfinder?" Eizzach murmurs to those not also engaged in the conversation. "My, but they do have a track record of showing up in the strangest places."
When Aerys gives Eizzach the stink-eye, he gives her a slight nod in greeting but doesn't say anything to her. *********** "That leaves me out, then," Eizzach adds with a harumph. "I've been told that I'm better at treating people than talking to to them. Something about my bedside manner. Better to the the social butterflies among us ask the questions."
"I'd like to know why he was locked up in the first place," says the gnome gruffly. "Even the Chelaxian justice system can be right once an age, sad as it is to say. And it would go a long way towards knowing if we can trust him or not, especially given our current circumstances."
"Not a problem, I happen to have just the thing on hand for this--" Eizzach reaches into his coat and removes a stoppered vial filled with a syrupy red liquid. He uncorks and swigs it in one motion.
"There we go," the gnome says, patting his biceps. "Strength of the ant. It only works for carrying things, but it means that if we can pile it up and strap some bags to me, I can shoulder some of the burden."
"Bite marks on the neck," Eizzach says finally, "serpentine, but from a very large serpent. He's been dead for nearly 24 hours." ************ After the group has finished moving everything from the deck to the ledge, Eizzach dusts off his hands and looks back at the boat. "So, what's our next move?"
Yanistah:
"I'll be done in just one moment..." Eizzach replies, looking intently through a lense at Rambar's corpse.
"Nethys, huh," Eizzach says. "Then if they do belong to the prisoner, we can probably assume that he's some sort of spellcaster."
GM Jammin' and crew, this is just a heads up; I will be gone all day and all night Thursday. I'm going to a baseball game downtown and won't have access to the forums during that time. Feel free to use Eizzach however you see fit, including spending bombs, crossbow bolts, or gp. I'll catch up again on Friday. Thanks in advance.
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