Perception (hearing) check: 19 (21 if arcane)
Bedu and Indo are on watch in the middle of the night. All seems calm, just the normal sounds of the jungle at night. Suddenly, the canopy above rustles madly as a long, sinuous form drops out of the trees onto Bedu. Slithering like a large snake, the creature has the head of a dragon and a pair of clawed arms. Its jaws clamp down on Bedu's shoulder , and while its claws scrabble ineffectively against the dwarf's armor, its coils wrap tightly around his body.
"Help me!" shrieks Bedu at the sudden attack.
The nimble dwarf attempts to slip free of this motherless dragon-snake.
If he makes it the dwarf moves away twenty feet - fast.
Indo harshly whispers Alarm! as he steps to Bedu's defense. Pulling the sword free as he advances, the big man swings at the beast, trying carefully to avoid hitting the dwarf.
After quietly listening to the others before they settle down for the night, and then an uneventful watch with Lotus, Skittle chooses to stay on the ground, rather than sleeping in the trees as is his habit.
Pulled from his dreams of family and happier times, Skittle jumps awake almost instantly at the sound of the attack. However, he expects to see monkey-goblins, and his mind stalls as he tries to comprehend what is happening.
DC 10 Perception (hearing) check (1d20+4=8)
After her watch, Lotus falls back into a deep slumber from which she cannot easily be awakened. Finally when everyone is fighting, she wakes up and shakes away the cobwebs in her mind.
Round 1:
"Help me!" shrieks Bedu, wriggling out of the creature's grasp like a greased eel. The dwarf scurries off to the side, as the group awakes, dazed and groggy.
Having lost its prey, the "dragon-snake" turns its attention to Indo, jaws snapping and locking onto the warrior . Its coils lash around Indo as well, holding him fast.
Unable to draw his sword, Indo instead heaves himself free of the coils.
End of round 1.
Initiative order:
18 Bedu
Monster
13 Skittle
8 Indo
7 Lotus
DC 12 Knowledge (arcana) check to recognize the creature:
Bedu grabs the branches and logs collected for the morning, and throws them on the fire. He spends enough time to make sure that the flames ride high and light is more plentiful for the less fortunate members of the party.
"Come on, its a dragon! Cousin to a wild snake and son of a wrestling bear, and your sleep is over."
Astounded at the sudden attack, Liet finally gets into action with Bedu's continued cries for assistance. Even as the dwarf starts to heave more wood onto the fire, the priest calls upon the god-kings to bring light into their otherwise dim world.
With their clearing more well-lit, Liet then turns his attention to figuring out what they're facing.
"A tatzlwyrm!" he exclaims, "Don't let it snare you in its coils!"
It's a what?!?! the rogue half mumbles to herself.
Still groggy and hazy from sleep, Lotus gets to her feet and gets her sword in hand. From there she moves as far around the wyrm as she can to set up a flank the next round.
"Dazzle Wyrm!" Skittle yells as he draws his short sword and lunges at the beast.
Hummurabi stomps the earth in front of him in a lunge, the dusty jungle floor rises, with outstretched palms towards the wyrm, Hammurabi yells, "Almudin" an invisible concussive force strikes the scales of the creature causing its shiny flanks to ripple like the water after a pebble has been cast into its depths.
Initiative:16; Telekinetic Fist ranged touch attach: 21; Damage: 4.
Indo throws off the weight of the beast and steps back, raising his father's blade and looking for an opening. After grimacing at the lateness of Liet's advice, the tribesman throws his weight into his swing and hopes to strike true.
Round 2:
Initiative order:
18 Bedu
Tatzlwyrm
16 Hammurabi
13 Skittle
9 Liet
8 Indo
7 Lotus
Bedu throws more logs on the fire, shouting to wake everyone up. Frustrated at losing its prey (twice!), the tatzlwyrm lunges again at Indo, but the warrior's mystical armor blocks its sharp teeth. Hammurabi strikes the wyrm with a telekinetic fist as Skittle darts in, but the creature's scales deflect his weapon. Liet raises his glowing mace, further banishing the darkness and making the creature more visible. In the bright light, you see a creature like a long snake, but with a dragon's head and two long, clawed arms. A sickly green mist wafts from its gnashing maw. Indo swings his sword at the beast, but it dodges out of the way. Trying to shake off her grogginess, Lotus moves around the creature, looking for an advantage.
End of round 2.
Now that everyone is awake and active, the dwarf takes a moment to look around up in the tree for a sneaky mate.
Then he starts exhorting everyone to greater strength, "Come on, this is our chance to kill a dragon. Who will have dragonslayer after their name? Claim the name and the honour that goes with it!"
Perception check (nat 20)=27! And no bardic bonus, just words to see how you all do in this fight.
Lotus darts in from behind with her short sword leading. The dragon apparently distracted by Indo in front. In drawing blood from the wyrm, she is now fully awake and very aware that she isn't wearing any armor.
Realizing most of his friends are fighting such a dangerous creature without the benefit of their armor, Liet deduces they'd all better get involved in finishing the beast before it can do any serious damage. He wades into the fray, wielding his light mace both for its radiance and as his best hand-to-hand weapon. Once he finds an opening, he bashes at it with all his might.
1d20 = 20 to hit!
1d6-1 = 4 hp
1d20 = 19 to hit!
1d6-1 = 1 hp
With a growl & a sneer, Skittle draws his kukri and renews his attack, both blades flashing.
Attack 1d20=4+2=6, Damage 1d6=6+1=7,
Attack 1d20=12+2=14, Damage 1d4=4+1=5
Hammurabi attempts to call upon the teachings of Amudin, he fails [ooc]to hit 4, to dmg 2[ooc]the concussive force strikes a branch and leaves spray to the jungle carpet
Round 3:
Bedu tries to encourage the group as he looks around for more tatzlwyrms, but he can't see any more lurking in the dense foliage. As Lotus moves behind it, the tatzlwyrm whirls around to face her. Its jaws clamp down painfully onto her as it coils its tail around her.
Hammurabi throws another telekinetic fist, but misses, while Skittle slashes at the wyrm, slicing it with his kukri. Liet moves in as well, bashing the dragon's glaring eye with his mace, spattering Lotus with black ichor.
Taking advantage of its blinded eye, Indo steps forward and brings his father's sword whistling down, a hair's breadth away from Lotus's face. The blade cleaves through the tatzlwyrm's neck. Lotus feels a quick, painful pressure as the creature's coils reflexively constrict, then they slide down to the ground to join the wyrm's lifeless head.
End of round 3, and of the combat, it seems.
Bedu claps Indo on the shoulder, "Indo the dragonslayer, dragonbane, dragonfoe, yes I like dragonslayer best of all."
"The tree is empty, I guess these are solitary beasts. I wonder if they have a nice dragon hoard somewhere up there?" muses the dwarf, eyes glinting.
He looks round at the party, "who needs healing? I would not wish anyone to think I value them less than a pile of gold."
Liet spends several moments grimacing over the mess coating the head of his mace after bashing the tatzlwyrm's eye. He locates some large fern leaves to wipe it off and then rejoins the rest of the group.
"A most curious and intriguing creature," the priest announces. He proceeds to examine the tatzlwyrm's body, poking and prodding at it as he mutters a few words for insight from the god-kings.
"It seems like little more than an aggressive predator to the untrained eye," he declares, "Though legends say tatzlwyrms do share an ancestry with true dragons somewhere in the distant past. I believe they're intelligent as well...though probably not in the same terms we would normally associate with ourselves and our own people."
The priest squints up at the treetops, but it's far too dark to make out anything more definitive about the creature's approach.
"I wonder if there are more of his kind about? We'd better keep our guard up if we want to make it through the night. And look to the trees as well as the underbrush. Danger comes from all angles in the jungle, it would seem..."
Skittle wipes off his kukri and looks around at the others before shrugging and climbing back in his bedroll just a few feet from the body of the tatzlewyrm. However, after a moment of two, he opens his eyes and looks the carcass over, and then gets to his feet again. He gives Bedu a nod and then draws his kukri, puts the blade between his teeth, and climbs up into the tree for a look around.
Climb, Look, Smell (1d20=2+7=9, 1d20=10+4=14, 1d20=9+6=15)
Liet:
Skittle:
Skittle:
** spoiler omitted **
Skittle checks over the bodies and the area for anything interesting, while also looking for any signs of the creatures family or friends.
Skittle:
** spoiler omitted **
Skittle checks over the bodies and the area for anything interesting, while also looking for any signs of the creatures family or friends.
Skittle grimaces from the smell, but tries to get a little closer to the bodies for a better look.
"Ahh..." Liet notes as he finally rises from the tatzlwyrm's corpse. Inwardly, he gives praise to the god-kings for the insight they've provided their servant. "It would seem these creatures are indeed quite dangerous," he explains, "They possess a high degree of cunning and use stealth to ambush their prey. They may not possess the wings of their larger cousins, but they get about quite well in the branches of trees such as these."
The priest squints once more into the canopy as Skittle starts his climb. "They have a bit of a hoarding instinct as well!" he calls after the gnome, "So have a look around while you're up there!"
"There's no telling what this one may have 'collected' from its kills," he notes to the others.
Then, to make one further point, he gestures towards the creature's severed head. "You see there," the priest continues as if he were lecturing once again at the monastery that trained him in the ways of the god-kings, "Those sacs there are poisonous...but they're respiratory in nature, and not at all indicative of an injected toxin. I'd say they're a bit short on range, too. At best, a tatzlwyrm could poison prey that struggles overly much within its constricting coils. A hideous way to die, I'm sure..."
Liet pauses to soberly regard Indo for a brief moment.
"So...ummm...we were obviously quite lucky to slay it before the wyrm ruined our evening altogether. Quick-thinking, Indo."
Indo clutches the open wound at his breast and tries to stop the bleeding. He nods to Liet, We are all fortunate then. These beasts, they kill the watch and then have their way with the rest.
Lotus screams out in dismay as the Tatzlewyrm grapples her. Then another cry when the black ichor spatters her. Finally she sinks whimpering to the ground as Indo puts an end to the wyrms life. Shaking on her knees she holds her sword firmly, her knuckles white, for security that it didn't offer before.
With Bedu congratulating Indo, she looks up in teared eyes and stops shaking a bit. With noone concerning themselves with her, she withdraws to her sleeping place and sits down, knees drawn up tightly to her chest, rocking slightly. The poor girl really shows her age there in the jungle.
Skittle:
Liet:
Indo clutches the open wound at his breast and tries to stop the bleeding. He nods to Liet, We are all fortunate then. These beasts, they kill the watch and then have their way with the rest.
"Indeed. I believe they would do just that," Liet nods. He notes the blood seeping between Indo's fingers where he clutches his chest.
"Let me have a look at that..." he offers, "Even though the tatzlwyrm's bite isn't poisonous...it doesn't mean an infected wound can't kill you just as easily. Especially out here in the wild."
"That should staunch the bleeding well enough for now," he notes after a few moments, "Perhaps I can do more in the morning, once I've prepared the proper rituals for the blessings of the god-kings."
With noone concerning themselves with her, she withdraws to her sleeping place and sits down, knees drawn up tightly to her chest, rocking slightly. The poor girl really shows her age there in the jungle.
When he's done, Liet finally notices Lotus has withdrawn well apart from everyone else. Concerned, he sets aside his healing supplies and makes his way toward the girl's resting place.
"Are you alright, miss?" he quietly inquires, kneeling down to be close enough to her so their voices won't carry, "That tatzlwyrm came close to getting you as well. It's a good thing Indo there's as handy with a blade as he is..."
The priest visually assesses the girl's demeanor while looking for signs of injury.
"Did it harm you at all?" he kindly asks.
Liet:
Spoiler:The party found a book in Samir's sanctum early on that records the history of two early god-kings, Takshak and Haatim the Cinderborn. No one has looked at the book so far, but I thought I would mention it to you since you're new and Liet might be interested in it.
DM:
Skittle climbs down out of the tree with a bow slung over his shoulder. "I don't think there are anymore of those things up there, but I did find a couple of its meals. They don't look so good. HA! But they did have some stuff - an interesting ring and some coins," he adds as he tosses them on the ground, "and a bunch of weapons," he says as he points back up the tree. "A couple of crossbows, some shorts swords and one of those wavy scorpion type blades, and oh yeah, some leather scale armor, if anyone's interested."
With that, he looks around at the others for a few seconds, and then unslings the bow and starts pulling on the string.
"I don't think there are anymore of those things up there, but I did find a couple of its meals. They don't look so good. HA! But they did have some stuff - an interesting ring and some coins," he adds as he tosses them on the ground, "and a bunch of weapons," he says as he points back up the tree. "A couple of crossbows, some shorts swords and one of those wavy scorpion type blades, and oh yeah, some leather scale armor, if anyone's interested."
"Why don't you fetch them all down and I'll have a look at them in a moment...after I'm done talking with Lotus here," Liet quietly responds, "Perhaps I can discern something about their previous owners. While studying at the monastery, the monks made sure we got an education on the history of Iskandria, the legends and myths of our ancestry, as well as the noble lineage of the god-kings themselves."
Lotus clearly shows the teeth marks on her upper body where the Tatzlewyrm clamped down before it wrapped its coils around her. The bleeding is clotting, but enough blood was lost to indicate a serious wound. Fortunately the rogues' clothing was already dark and the bloodstains don't stand out much.
"Are you alright, miss?" he quietly inquires, kneeling down to be close enough to her so their voices won't carry, "That tatzlwyrm came close to getting you as well. It's a good thing Indo there's as handy with a blade as he is..."
The priest visually assesses the girl's demeanor while looking for signs of injury.
"Did it harm you at all?" he kindly asks.
It got me good... Shaking she moves her arms out of the way so the cleric can see the full extent of her injuries. I don't think I like dragons that much. is the girls only attempt at weak humor.
It got me good... Shaking she moves her arms out of the way so the cleric can see the full extent of her injuries. I don't think I like dragons that much. is the girls only attempt at weak humor.
"Few do, my dear," Liet replies, smiling as best he can while examining her injuries. But then he frowns with concern over the depth of the bite marks. "These won't do at all," he says, "Lie back down. Rest yourself for our journey tomorrow. You'll need to save your strength. Meanwhile, I'll pray to the god-kings so they might mend us for the trials ahead."
He reassuringly touches the girl's forehead.
Liet then moves to assist Skittle with examining the gear claimed from the tatzlwyrm's 'collection.'
1d6 = 4 hp, 1d6 = 6 hp, 1d6 = 4 hp
"Why don't you fetch them all down and I'll have a look at them in a moment...after I'm done talking with Lotus here," Liet quietly responds, "Perhaps I can discern something about their previous owners. While studying at the monastery, the monks made sure we got an education on the history of Iskandria, the legends and myths of our ancestry, as well as the noble lineage of the god-kings themselves."
"Okay," Skittle says with a nod as he grabs some rope and climbs back up the tree.
Once in the tree, he bundles up everything but the rations, and lowers it back down to the ground before descending again.
Thank you. the girl whispers. Then Lotus lies down on Liet's instruction and breathes a relieved sigh as someone takes care of her for the first time in her life.
Thank you. the girl whispers. Then Lotus lies down on Liet's instruction and breathes a relieved sigh as someone takes care of her for the first time in her life.
"You are most welcome," Liet answers.
Once in the tree, he bundles up everything but the rations, and lowers it back down to the ground before descending again.
Liet helps guide the bundle to the ground, calling Bedu over to help investigate the items Skittle has scavenged. As the three of them gather around the pile, he quietly converses with them about Lotus.
"That girl's put on a very brave face," he notes, "But I'd wager she's younger than she looks...and a bit shook up by everything. Not just the tatzlywyrm, mind you, but this whole..."
He waves his hands as if searching for the right word.
"...situation?...we've found ourselves in," he finally finishes, "Let's all keep an eye on her tomorrow and help her along where we can. Many of us have led hard lives since the Rani came to power. But I sense hers has been harder still..."
"Now, lets see what we can make of this..." he says, holding up the unusual ring Skittle found.
Skittle brings down the following items: two light crossbows, a masterwork shortbow, a case of 7 crossbow bolts, two short swords, a bich’hwa (also called a waveblade or “scorpion’s tail”), a suit of leather scale armor, a signet ring with the image of a dancing monkey, 9 gp, 12 sp, and eight days’ worth of rations.
Bich'hwa: Also known as the waveblade or “scorpion’s tail,” this short, double-curved blade has no hilt but features a knuckle guard and can easily be used in either hand. A bich’hwa provides a +2 bonus on any roll made to keep from being disarmed in combat. This weapon is a special monk weapon for the use of flurry of blows and other monk abilities.
Light Exotic melee weapon, 1d4 damage, 19-20/x2, 2 lb., P or S
Leather scale: Leather scale armor is a leather coat and leggings (or skirt) covered with overlapping scales made of cured leather, like the scales of a fish. It comes with leather gauntlets.
Light armor; Cost: 35 gp; Armor bonus: +3; Max. Dex. bonus: +6; Armor check -2; Spell failure: 15%; Speed 30 ft./20 ft.; Weight: 20 lb.
Liet:
After your rude awakening at the hands (and teeth) of the tatzlwyrm, the rest of the night passes uneventfully. Hammurabi and Liet take the final watch, and though the sunrise isn't visible through the thick foliage of the jungle, the forest gradually brightens, heralding the new day.