Frothing at the mouth, Irawaru lays into an insect foe.
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Even as the party lays into the soldier ants, the grievously injured giant reptile crashes through the brush into the distance. The ants, meanwhile, swarm the more visible targets, two of them stinging Hoku -19hp to Hoku, no poison, one of them bloodying itself from Aden's flames in the attempt.
The non-combatants, meanwhile, follow Hoku's lead and move toward the priestess, further into the jungle and away from the ants.
"Get out of there! We can't kill the whole nest."
Hasnett looks despairingly at her comrades, up to their necks in giant insects. She stows her morningstar and loads her crossbow, readying it for action.
Elohir watches the giant lizard run from his ethereal vantage point with anger.
"Again they run. I wish they'd just leave us alone if they haven't the inclination to even finish a fight. Stupid beasts..."
"Get out of there! We can't kill the whole nest."
"Be interesting to try though", Aden gives a small smile. "We can atleast keeo them at bay as we make our escape."
"Less tongue, more running," bellows Hasnett.
Elohir moves farther away as well and throws one small ball of flame at the ants.
Move Action: Move to R9.
Standard Action: Scorching Burst vs. REF of A22, A17, A21; 10 vs. A22, 21 vs. A17, 13 vs. A21 for 8 fire damage. [ooc]If I somehow hit A22 he takes an extra 1d6=5 damage.
Irawaru doesn't heed the priestess and continues to carve a swathe of ichor.
"Sweet Melora! Why? He can't even eat them," mutters Hasnett under her breath.
"Oh for pity's sake..."
Hasnett moves behind the tree and pulls out her holy symbol, sending invigorating power sluicing towards the unconscious barbarian.
"Get out of there you musclebound idiot. They're ants. They're killing you. Time to leave. That goes for all of you," she adds, concern making her sound harsher than she intends. Still holding her symbol, she tries to obliterate an ant. She fails miserably.
"Although - if anyone can clear a path for him, that would help."
Seeing Irawaru in danger the shadar-kai sprints back to his aid.
"As long as I have the power I can't let you be dying on my watch."
Aden places his hands together and begins making hand jestures...
Everything becomes coated in darkness and when light returns Irawaru is safe.
"Hmm, well this is quite exciting", He says as the ants sting and bite around him...
"Unfortunatley I can't stay and play. That woman would have a fit" he smiles and nods at Hasnett. He takes a step forward and blinks out
And reappears near Hasnett
"Can we go now?"
"That was exhilarating," says Elohir sarcastically. "Shall we continue on our way? Night will be here soon and the creatures will only become more curious as the light fades."
"Keep moving."
Hasnett holds up her sunrod and keeps her eyes open for a path to follow.
"Telling you, after seeing the ants, the mosquitos around here must be HUGE."
Irawaru glowers at the ants and then at the rest of the party.
"Bunch o' bludgers." he mutters.
OOC Spoiler:
Elohir looks up intently and you can tell he's already studying the stars again and hardly paying attention to where he's going.
"He can see everywhere," Elohir whispers to himself, "amazing," and he looks off into the horizon. Trying to gauge how much further away the volcano lies.
"I'm beginning to think we should just burn the whole island to the ground. As long as the volcano is still intact..." he muses.
Hasnett listens as Elohir works out their position, politely ignoring his more peculiar comments.
"We've got light and you can navigate. Want to take a night journey everyone?"
Irawaru keeps an eye out for something that can be slain.
"Yes, we should make haste," says Elohir, who still hasn't shown any signs of fatigue from the journey despite his frail appearance.
"I would recommend we form a rope-line, or walk with an arm on the shoulder of the person in front of us. We do not want to fall into any pits that we cannot see now."
Elohir fishes through his bag and pulls out an impossible length of rope from it. He then passes it back through the party.
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Toward dawn, all (save perhaps Elohir) are exhausted after trudging through the jungle for a day and a night. Finally, the trees and vines clear out, and you are at the base of the mountain. Immediately in front of you is a cave entrance, from which is shining a very bright light. No animal life is visible.
Elohir giggles with excitement and gestures wildly to the entrance.
"Almost there, almost there! Soon the answers will be revealed!" he exclaims.
His hands are shaking from lack of eating, and his knees wobble a bit with each step, but from his facial expressions the young half-elf barely seems to notice, if at all.
Hasnett looks from the cave to Elohir and back again, her expression unreadable.
"We're going in then?" she asks rhetorically.
"Looks that way" Aden gives a quick yawn
Elohir stands in awe, that funny grin returned to his face. He then opens the leather bound book in his hand and begins writing with a piece of charcoal produced from a pocket inside his vest.
Hasnett briefly wonders if she has any useful rituals that may help. While she's equipped to mend things, put dead comrades in a state of stasis, do without sleep or food and (as she belatedly and with some embarrassment realises), understand other languages, she doesn't honestly think that any of these are likely to be useful in the present situation.
"I don't think we're going to need the sunrod. Some kind of eyeshade might be a plan though." She briskly pulls a strip of bandage from her backpack and cobbles together a rough bandana.
"Good look?"
Elohir scrapes off a bit of his charcoal and rubs it vigorously around his eyes with his index finger. The effect on his emerald eyes is startling, and they seem even larger and more piercing than before, even if the overall effect looks a tad silly.
"So what's the plan?" Aden squinta at the the almost intolerable light, before turing and looking at Elohir. Aden tries his best not to laugh at him or his new raccon-like look.
Elohir begins to step tentatively towards the cave entrance, with occasional furtive glances up into the sky. He is obviously nervous about leaving the comfort of the open sky.
"Hopefully this won't take long," he says.