So it goes with just about any homebrew. ;) Likewise, this was fun!
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Yalyaane creates chaotic terrain! Grr!
anything happen? :(
I will be backpacking from 6/19-6/21. Please bot Yalyaane as needed. Slay monsters cheerfully!
"...was that a pun?" Yalyaane looks perplexed.
"I...think he just offered them as a gift to Adara, Adir. Hey Mezdav! Where I come from, girls like sweets, or silks, or books, or if you really want to impress them, a horse!" Yalyaane sighs. "mmmm...or mare's milk cheese made with camel rennet! That's the best a man can give!"
Yalyaane decides to take some time, when on breaks, to speak with the people walking alongside the wagons (and those sitting on them), in a social-butterfly manner. "Well, we took care of the owlbear," she says cheerfully. "Listen," she says earnestly to a woman on foot,"I know it can be dangerous, but that's why we are here. If there's something that attacks, get behind the wagons, and we will dispatch it quickly. We haven't lost a caravan yet!" She flashes a huge grin and waves her crossbow.
Yalyaane hustles with the hide and carries it with Mezdav's help back to the caravan, creating water at various times to sluice blood off the skin, and her hands, and everything else. "Whew, that felt like it took a week!" she exclaims.
"Well, help me roll it over on its back, and see, I started cutting here..." Yalyaane points at the owlbear's groin. "Ahem. You cut down the legs and I'll go up the belly..."
Sending positive vibes your way, Pash.
"Yes, please! This was a big animal!" says Yalyaane, her hands already bloody.
Yalyaane shrugs at Ercio. "That druid isn't one to discuss things before running off," she says, then grins. "Oh well! And I'm sure this can be sold. Are you any good at skinning things, though? I can give it a try, but someone should run up and tell the caravan to slow down and wait for us." She pulls out a dagger and makes her way to the owlbear.
Yalyaane looks for tracks that the owlbear may have left.
"So much for ghostly deer sounds," grumbles Yalyaane, stepping out of the way for Mezdav. The distortion field around her ripples and flies away to twist the ground beneath the beast into unnatural angles that are difficult to look at.
All good, DM!
Yalyaane pauses to make a few gestures and speak some truly odd words. After a moment, the sound of a wounded deer sounds to the left of the trail, emanating from the woods. It's a truly mournful bleat--the deer sounds injured and stuck.
"Hey, do you hear that?" she says, turning towards the sound. "That is absolutely the sound of a wounded deer and not an illusion I made! I sure hope the bear thingy doesn't want to go eat it." The sound continues for a few more seconds.
"Great, I yelled at Dugal for nothing," says Yalyaane. "Ercio, I can make the terrain difficult for it if it decides to move," she says.
Yalyaane gives Mezdav a startled glance, then shrugs. Lowlanders are strange, she reminds herself. She shouts to Dugal. "GET THE WAGONS MOVING!" Yalyaane takes a moment to utter words in a gutteral voice and wave a hand about. You all feel a small bit of courage in your chests, bolstering you.
The oracle looks somewhat more nimble now.
I have used Roll20 and Google Slides, but I'm ok with whatever.
"I'm good at scaring things," says Yalyaane, who does not look scary at all (except for the mild distortion surrounding her). She thinks for a moment. "Dugal! I need a banner. Do you have one? Do the Pharasmins have one?"
Yalyaane agrees and hitches up her donkey, patting it on the head. "You'll get carrots if you do a good job," she says to it. Yalyaane walks with the wagon, right into the mud, watching to see if the wheels and animals can keep their footing. "I'm not bad at moving on mud, or snow," she says.
"Oh...okay. Pash, are you all right? Ercio--are half lings usually that..." Yalyaane mimes shivering, and looks concerned.
"Wouldn't we have known if that was a werewolf? Or do werewolves and worgs run together? ...are there wereworgs?"
"It seems like the forest is doing ok to me, but I'm not a druid," says Yalyaane in agreement. "That's a nice plump one!" After that, she does her usual surveying of the wagons and the trees. She takes a moment to hold her crossbow in one hand, still loaded, but not taut (the crossbow will not enjoy being under tension all day), and scans around away from the wagons for magic.
Ah yes, the days when all sorts of rule bending occurred, until the Paizo Nation attacked.
"That sounds like a plan, Dugal," says Yalyaane in agreement. "I'll take, um, left middle, or left front, however we care to call it. Opposite Medav. I think Mezdav likes the perfumist. Maybe she can help him with...you know," she says, hiding a smile. "Or if that's a bad idea, I can be back with a half ling," she continues, somewhat indecisively, and still failing to pronounce the word as a single word. "Aldi, can you do carvings on your weapons? I'd like one with a salamander sigil on it," she says, guilelessly. "Yalyaane, the Salamander of the North! Or North-East, I suppose." Before Ercio leaves, she calls to him. "Hey! Let us know if game is still scarce! Silly druid!" "Were those salamanders particularly frightened, I wonder?"
She realizes she doesn't know anything about these cute (but totally unfamiliar) lowland amphibians. She amuses herself by using her oracular orisons on pine needles, floating them in the air, and then letting the reality-warping effects around her fling the needles in random directions when she releases her concentration.
"I can take one--give me a moment and I can ah, 'summon' the skill to use an incapacitative...incapacitating? weapon." Yalyaane stumbles over the long word. "The kind you use when playing rough!" she says with a laugh.
Yalyaane is not troubled by the rain too much; it gives her a chance to look for salamanders slithering under leaves, something she greatly enjoys. She does some looking at the skies to see whether the rain will come back:
And she blows her animal call to attract rabbit, to see if any can be caught and cooked up:
Finally, she checks in with Amara and Findazzle, to see if they have any spare steel bowls. If they do, she places wet twigs in them, passes them out to travelers, and uses Spark to light them.
Yalyaane checks in with Dugal. "Do you think we are watching the supply wagons sufficiently? The perfumist's wagon, the Pharasmins, and so forth, they are occupied, but they others are not," she says thoughtfully. She also hunts for rabbit, and checks with Ercio regarding the scarcity of game. "What do you think? Was the worg starving because of something else?"
Yalyaane smiles at the boy. "Of course!"
"Ha, that wasn't too good. I need to warm up." She tries the deer bugle again.
"Better, but I'm not sure the deer are going to appear any time soon," she laughs. "I must be tired. Why don't you try for me--maybe you can do better." She catches sight of Dugal and Mezdav. "Keep practicing for a bit, Bren; I'll have whet my whistle--is it wet? whet? Lowland talk is funny to me sometimes," she says. "And tell me if you hear a deer call back to you." She trots to follow the half-orc alchemist and the difficult to understand dwarf, catching the gist of the discussion of scouting and guarding. "I do ok in the wild, although I'm best near the wagons. But I can shoot from a distance decently enough," she says, noting a fishhook threatening to fall out of her bag and fly ten feet in a random direction, "...if the pesky spirits don't misdirect me."
"It's not broken. Here, I'll show you," says Yalyaane. She gently blows on the animal call, then hands it to Bren, after cleaning the mouthpiece. "You just have to puff your cheeks, like a squirrel gathering nuts," she says with a smile.
I think Squirrel Ninja is still bailing out their basement, so it should be ok. Pash and GM, and the rest of you, be well! :)
Not the precious toilet paper! That's turrible.
"Oh, it's you, Bren. Say...you know that's mine, yes? You should ask permission before borrowing things," she says.
"Hello! I'm Yalyaane. What are you planning to call with that?" she says to the boy.
Yalyaane tries to figure out what kind of animal calling horn it is.
I'm transitioning to work-at-home and found I brought home an analog monitor. Much disappoint. I'll have to make a Fury Road run back to work tomorrow.
"Bear fat, that is good for many things," says Yalyaane in semi-agreement. "Adir, what do you think we'll run into next? I have a feeling this caravan will prove dangerous indeed."
Yalyaane wrinkles her nose. "Wolf is no good to eat," she says.
Yalyaane finds a few plants to season food, though, and fills up waterskins as she walks through the camp, casting her orison multiple times. She decides to look for Bren.
Yalyaane bows to Dugan. "We'll keep it quiet. Thank you for the information." She checks on the other travelers, doing a sweep of the caravan.
But gets distracted and winds up sniffing at perfumes for far too long. She joins Mezdav and sings a harmony on top of his humming, wordlessly accompanying him. It's a high lonesome sound, but of the far off foreign hills, not of the familiar graves and stones of the Wold.
Yalyaane speaks to Dugal when she gets a moment with the dwarf. She keeps her voice low, but clear. "One of the travelers was killed. Does anybody know the man? I don't know your burial practices. The beast that killed him was a large wolf, larger than we have seen." She looks at Dugal with large, trusting eyes. "If you can tell us of what you know of the dangers of the road, we will be better able to defend you."
"We should kill it. If it survives and is badly injured and crippled, it will try to attack humans again.". Yalyaane crosses her arms. "Is this not so, Ercio? And it attacked a person without hesitation. That is not natural or normal."
"Let's tie it down with rope that it can chew through," says Yalyaane. "And I still don't understand. In the high country, wolves run in packs. Lone wolves are usually sick or old. Ercio, can you explain this?"
Yalyaane joins Ercio, looking at the wolf.
"Can you tell what it is, Ercio? It's shaped differently than the wolves I know," she says.
Yalyaane looses her crossbow bolt, trying not to hit Ercio or the mauled man.
The bolt is fouled in her string and plops to the ground. "Cow dung," she spits, and loads another, moving forward to get near the beast.
RP on downtime days sounds good.
I'm fine either way. :)
"Attack on left flank! Some kind of wolf! They come in packs so move CAUTIOUSLY!" Yalyaane takes a moment to make herself deadlier with a crossbow and moves to the edge of the woods.
Yalyaane busies herself during her watch, making little bundles of twigs and whittling the ends into fine curls, then placing them on low branches of trees. She doesn't bother to be stealthy during her watch, instead walking around each of the wagons in a wide circle around the camp. Before and after, she sleeps by her mule.
Yalyaane imitates the sounds and nods. "The fire will obscure night vision, even those with extremely good night vision. And the cold will keep the person on watch awake. I'll take second watch. "
Yalyaane looks concerned. "He plans to scuttle the caravan, then, or make a clandestine stop to sell something from a wagon. Then why even hire us, as Pash said? I wonder if it is to frame us. Or we are to be sold..." The hillfolk woman scratches her cheek. "We need to make sure we are all able to communicate, by sight and sound. Some sort of whistle signal. And when we sleep in watches, we watch Dugal." She spreads her hands with an embarrassed smile. "I am guilty of being a somewhat trusting person. Dugal has a servant, possibly a slave. We should be careful of trusting anyone here. Even though he gave me a pretty stone. Anyhow...those of us with better judgment may want to watch Dugal for signs that he will do something." She idly plucks some grass and lets it fall, watching it scoot in bizarre angles away from her to a distance of five paces instead of twirling directly to the ground. |