Focused on the beast, Harn continues to swing his axe, once more trying to take it out before it causes too much damage.
Attack:
Attack:
Damage:
Round 2: Lueck will call out: Harn, accept Cayden's might!
Teeth gritting from the excruciating pain he feels in his side, Trevor steps sideways, trying to get in a better position with Harn, and swings his axe horizontally with all he's got.
5-foot step to M14
SA: Power attack
PA Greataxe: to hit
Damage
4Harn
20Lueck
20Trevor
21AAremeth
Round 2:
AAremeth lobs a second bomb at the further side of the beast. It's back flank bursts with flame and it whips his head back in shock.
Lueck calls out Harn, accept Cayden's might! with that he prays to Cayden and Harn grows to the size of an ogre.
Teeth gritting from the excruciating pain he feels in his side, Trevor steps sideways, trying to get in a better position with Harn, and swings his axe horizontally with all he's got.It seems this beasts scales are made of plate as the axe is once again skipped off its thick hide.
Vermiis lopes forward, right under the startled Aaremeth's feet, to attack the creature from that side. He too has no luck against the Wyrm's armored scales.
Nikolae begins incanting again as he steps forward, his voice starting in a low sing-song cadence and ending with an exultant cry of "Elatuum Canis!" On the opposite side of the creature from Vermiis, a luminscent white hound appears, short-furred like a mastiff or saluqi, and with sharp blocky features, as if carved of white marble. With a strange echoing bark that sounds more like the peal of a bell than anything from a dog's throat, it leaps into the fray as well. It latches on shredding into the Wyrm's tender flesh.
The wyrm rears back to look at the celestial hound and strikes it's jaws bite down on the beast lifting the hound into the air. then with a vicious rake it disembowels the golden hound ,but before the wyrm can enjoy its snack the dog returns to its native plane. The wyrm howls in fury.
The now rather large Harn Focused on the beast, Harn continues to swing his axe, once more trying to take it out before it causes too much damage. To no avail despite his newfound size the soft flesh beneath the scale remained untouched by axe.
Round 3: Lueck will lose Obscuring Mist to cast Cure Light Wounds on Trevor, moving behind him.
Cure
Trevor feels a soothing bubble coming up his stomach as Cayden's blessing is bestowed upon him. He moves further, evercautious, to place the lizard between him and Harn . "This one's for the Lucky One!" as he lets his axe come down with full speed on the lizard's shoulder.
SA: Power attack and flanking
PA Greataxe: to hit
Damage
Round 3:
Attack:
Damage:
Round 3:
AAremeth takes a five foot step north to give Vermiss a bit more room to work and pulls out the last of his bombs throwing it at the further side of the beast ahead of him. Once again it blasts into the flank of the wyrm.
Lueck casts Cure Light Wounds on Trevor, moving behind him.
Trevor feels a soothing bubble coming up his stomach as Cayden's blessing is bestowed upon him. He moves further, evercautious, to place the lizard between him and Harn. "This one's for the Lucky One!" as he lets his axe come down with full speed on the lizard's shoulder chopping down nearly severing it's left arm.
Nikolae Shocked by how quickly it tore apart the celestial dog; Nikolae steps back and towards Quicksilver, and calls forth another hound from the celestial realms in a trembling voice, to charge in and attack from the same position. The hound appears to be almost the same one and it rips into the wyrm just like the other hound.
Vermiis attempts to bite as well, although he does not charge. The scales seem just a little to thick for Vermiis to penetrate.
The wyrm wraps around grappling Trevor preparing to squeeze the life out of Trevor the poison mist seeping from its maw.
The ogre-sized Harn attempts to take advantage of the flank as he brings his enlarged axe down in a two handed chop severing the wyrm in twain its body loosens around Trevor as its corpse flops in the clearing. Quicksilver eyes roll back as the mule smells the overwhelming amount of blood in the clearing. The wyrm shudders a last time as its body catches up with its already departed spirit.
Hefting his now bloodied axe onto his shoulder, the huge lumberjack says, "Ya ok Trevor?
Lying face down in the grass, he slowly and painfully picks himself up, removing the hind part of the beast that had wrapped around his leg. One hand leaning on his axe for support, he adds: "I was sure I had it. My axe bit so deep in it! But then it just turned around and wrapped around me. I swear I almost went to see Rafan in the Afterlife. But then I saw you! My mind was spinning; you were BIG!" Saying this as he turns, Trevor, with some relief, realizes that he wasn't hallucinating: "Oh! But you are... big. Well, thank goodness we felled it. Anyone knows what it is?"
Trevor will finally sat on the grass and take a deep breath, looking at the sky through the leaves. That forest sure is strange!
Perception:
Trevor you look around you still amazed at the last few moments you notice two things; first there on the trunk of the tree a patch of green and gray moss that can only be what Laural described as Elderwood mold, the second as you were rising you saw high up in the tree a good 50 foot or so are three bodies who by the look of their garb were woodsman. They obviously are dead for even from here you see the white of bone.
Lueck will survey the group. Was anyone hurt other than poor Trevor?
The creature is a Tatzlwyrm. This one is a particularly large specimen. The cunning beasts are brighter then average animals, but probably not as bright as say Vermiis. They love to wrap around victims and can breath a poison that weakens their victims till they die. Aaremeth quotes what he can remember of the beasts. Vermiss I doubt you want to eat any of this one like you did the Owlbear.
AAremeth holds up the cure light wounds he received at the temple. if any of you that are wounded would like this cure from town, you can take it, I have been working on a health potion, but I don't quite trust it for any one else's consumption just yet.
He'll look around a bit just to ensure that there isn't another one lurking about.
perception:
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Vermiis tilts it's head as Aaremeth warns him not to eat any of the creature, muttering "Tater-wurm, bad..." under it's breath as it nudges at the scaled corpse, pawing at one of the iron-hard scales that frustrated his attacks.
Nikolae lays his hand on Quicksilver's harness and leads him a few paces back from the dying beast, muttering soothing words.
Vermiis audibly chuffs at the sight, and bares its teeth at the mule, but offers up no additional commentary.
Quicksilver is very happy to be led away from the bloodshed, but his eyes go wide a bit at Vermiis's barred teeth. Up to this point he seemed rather calm around the predator seeing him as merely another traveling companion.with a snort and a almost spasmodic kick in Vermiis's direction he hastens away from him.
AAremeth smiles at Vermiss, nodding toward Quicksilver. "that meat carries everything so we don't have." Knowing neither Nikolae or Vermiis can realize how fond he truly is of the mule or the fact that he used to stable him in the shop before the boy started apprenticing with him.
Know arcana:
Looking through the leaves, Trevor plainly sees the dead body of a few woodsman, caught in the branches. "Looks like we found some of the disappeared up there. They're in bad shape. We should bring them back or bury them here. Someone wants to give me a hand?"
As he slowly picks himself up, feeling the weight of his armor crushing against his wounds, Trevor notices a patch of green and gray moss on the majestic tree. He jumps : Hey! Is that Elderwood mold?
Harn, while you still have this stature, can you reach those remains in the tree there? Or hoist someone else up?
Lueck will channel positive energy on the team after making sure the wyrm is completely dead and wouldn't benefit as well.
healing.
Taking a look at the tree, Harn will take a minute to pick out a route before saying. "I climb trees smaller than this all the time. I think a specimen as great as this can handle my weight" With that, Harn begins to strip out of his metal-studded armor to afford himself as much movement as possible for the climb. Then he places his axe and pack on the ground as he begins to climb the massive tree, only taking a coil of rope with him so he can lower the bodies once he reaches them.
Climb:
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"Be safe," Nikolae says to Harn, muttering a quick incantation and touching him on the shoulder after he shrugs out of his armor.
At Trevor's commentary on the mold, he turns to Aaremeth, "How should be package this for transport? I suspect that it should be kept damp and out of the light, but am not familiar with the substance. Will the touch of metal be harmful to it, or can we cut that piece of bark away with a dagger?"
Harn you find climbing a tree while big is to your liking in fact your enjoying being big quite a bit I imagine, your stronger, branches that would have been just a bit out of reach are right there easy to grab, and well your bigger. You make short work of the distance to the bodies, and sure enough there isn't much left other then skeletons. There is a bit of usable gear here so I will let you know what you find even though I know you guys are more concerned with taking care of their remains than loot.
2 light crossbows, 2 short swords, 1 mwk battle axe, 1 set of hide armor(the other two are too badly shredded to ever be salvageable), a mwk short bow 16arrows in a quiver, a ring with a flaming hawk design, 9gp,12sp, and finally about 8 days of rations.
Lueck will warn Harn what it feels like when the spell is about to wear off so he can make sure he's secure and not taken by surprise. When everything is down, Lueck will cast a detect magic on it.
Trevor, Harn, do we eventually want to take the remains back to town for their families or should we inter them nearby?
The ring radiate as magic faint abjuration.
Know Nature
Hmmmmmm. AAremeth hmmms thoughtfully thinking about what is best to do and how to carry the mold.
I guessing it might be best to take a part of the bark from the elder as well, there has to be a reason it only grows here after all.[b] From there I bet putting it in a bolt of cloth on its own would be best, don't want to mold the rest of our things. though considering whats on the line, I 'd rathe buy new equipment.
Having liked the thrill of being so large, he would have to remember that Lueck could do that for the future. However, once on the ground again, he turned back to the matter at hand.
Knowing that he wouldn't want to be buried in the Vale, Harn was leaning towards returning the bodies, About ready to say so, he seems to go through an inner debate before saying, "If the stories are to be believed, and by the looks o' that lizard thing, they are, I wouldn't want ta be buried in the Vale. At the same time though, if the witch's hut and the monastery are further in, then we'd be losing time by returning to town. If'n that's the case then better ta grant Cayden's blessing upon them, and hope that it's enough ta protect these poor men."
"Providing proper burial will take some time... I'm of two minds on this. We must make haste, granted, but at the cost of disrespecting the dead? Can't we just carry the remains in bags? Let me see how much those bones actually weigh."
Trevor will do his best to carry the remains, as they are just bones, on his back. He feels he owes one to the Hollow.
We can cut up a tent for fabric, and use it to wrap the remains. We should be able to use the mule to carry them until they can be returned to town.
The bones of the dead do not weigh all that much if you cut up one of the tents you could easily wrap each body somewhat respectfully, and lay them over the mules back.
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Nikolae wraps the bodies in one of the tents, not bothering to cut the tent up (so that it might later perhaps be cleaned, preferably magically, and reused, rather than cutting it up and ruining it).
"Once the goods are secure, we should move out to the our next objective." he says, fastening the bodies over Quicksilver's saddlebags.
Lueck is more than willing to sacrifice the tent he was using on behalf of these fallen men. I agree with Nikolae. There is simply no time to waste. Lueck tries to push the image of those sick children from his mind once again, so he can focus on the mission at hand.
Relieved to see the body properly treated, and a first step taken towards finding the ingredients to a cure for the people of Falcon's Hollow, Trevor resumes his place at the end of the file.
"So, what do we know exactly about this witch? Is she gonna be helpful?" Is she the Evil of the Vale?
Oh anyone who has grown up in the Hollow or even been there for long has heard at least some reference to Ulizmila the Witch of the Vale. Some say she is a Cheliax woman who has made pacts with infernal beings. Others say she is one of Baba Yaga's the deathless Witch Queen of the North's nieces. Some say she is rooted in every evil deed done in the vale. Others say she is merely a strange old hermit who lives in the vale. The best you have is that Laural said her own grandmother traded her sight for a few pages from some old tome. no one has seen her for years.
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If no one else grabs them, Nikolae will take up the coin, ring, mw battleaxe and mw shortbow (and 16 arrows, in case someone has use for the bow), pair of lt crossbows and pair of shortswords (leaving behind the hide armor), fastening them to Quicksilver's packs along with the remains of their owners.
Taking a look at the hide armor, Harn decides that it wouldn't be worth the effort to take along. Not only was he pretty attached to his own armor, he wasn't fond on donning anything that just came off of a dead body, at least not until it got cleaned. Looking to the others to see if they were ready to move on, Harn places a hand on the massive trunk and simply smiled, hoping that he would never have to cut down such a beautiful tree. Then orienting himself, the lumberjack asks, "Yah all ready?" as he starts to head off to the northwest and towards Ulizmila's hut.
If Aaremeth doesn't object, we'll add the items that are picked up by party members and back them on the mule as well. Then we'll follow Harn through his woods to the witch.
No objections here, just give me a few momentsto prepare. Some hopefully trade worthy components.AAremethwill gather the moss on a. Small part of the elder woods bark. (Assuming he can get a piece of it.) And then he will take reasonable parts of of the worm flesh and blood for potential trading with ulz.one down. two to go.
You travel for another three hours or so before the shadows of the wood begin to grow long and deeper pockets of darkness begin to spread through the underbrush. You find a decent spot to make camp, and soon have your camp set again with a fire crackling.
That sounds great, right down to omitting the owlbear.
The night passes uneventful, and the next day sees the rain from a few days ago return, but not in the downpour that had been plaguing the Vale before. The rain comes down more at a steady drizzle then a true rain. The woods grow dark as you approach the cabin, but knowing you are this near you press on to at least have a look before deciding to approach or back away, and make camp.
The sounds of the forest become suddenly distant as the trees part, opening into a small, almost perfectly circular glade. The nearest stand of pine, eyln, and darkwood- all typically sturdy trees- twist away from the clearing, as if bent by some impossibly strong wind or seemingly in an attempt to flee despite their paralyzed roots.At the glades center squats an ugly little cottage,little more than a shack. From the thatched roof dangle bundles of gnarled roots, carcasses of long dried beasts,and knucklebone bangles, all clattering together like gruesome windchimes. A dozen small thatched fetishes-each shaped like a tiny man, imp, or rearing serpent-stand propped in the yard, keeping silent vigil before a rickety plank door.
The cabin
Having been rather jolly and light-hearted through most of the journey, Harn becomes quite serious as they approach Ulmilza's hut. Remembering all the stories he had heart from other people in the village, Harn warily moves into the clearing. On edge and constantly looking about, Harn will approach the creepy hut.
Harn won't go up alone. Lueck will be right there with him.
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Nikolae shudders to see the tiny twisted effigies, and makes a fist, his thumb between his middle and ring fingers, and kisses it superstitiously, to ward off hexes.
Vermiis mutters something in Thassilonian, and he shoots the creature a glare.
They otherwise follow without comment, although Nikolae remains wide-eyed and alert for danger.
Stay calm and open,
Courageous and strong,
Let your arm be guided
By knowledge and wisdom.
Trevor repeats a litany priestess Shana taught him as he approaches the hut, cautiously.
Perception: