Surprisingly recognizing the tree from basic jungle survival courses taught by angry vets like Darkbiter, Cort grabs little Vankerman's wrist before he touches the fruit. "Sorry kid. See the speckles? This fruit isn't for us. That'll end up bad all around." He kicks the fruit a bit off to keep it away from them.
I didnt know you were familiar with the jungles foilage Cort but you are correct. Pass the word to be wary of this tree. Also keep in mind that out here usually the prettiest things are the most deadly
...buzzing sound?...
With a slight look of alarm on his face Bart shies away from the fruit, moving back to his mother for comfort. Robert mouths a thanks at Sentis and gives his son a hug.
One of the porters beams a smile and calls out
This is going be a long trip, I can already tell. Darkbiter simply cringes as he watches the exchange about the fruit back behind him. "Not sure, Keevan, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed it just in case it's something bad."
Perception
With the foilage closing in around us, have ready my trusty axe rather than shortbow.....
"They says tha fruit is edible?, I will ave tah remember tha tree in tha future."
Grusk is hypervigilant and takes in everything!
The elderly porter nods and starts gathering up a number of the bulu-bulu fruit.
As the Sangoma gathers his fruit, the buzzing grows louder.
Initiative:
Blaze: - 2nd
Darkbiter: - 4th
Doc: - 3rd
Grusk: - 8th
Kaavel: - 1st
Ryuko: - 5th
Sentis: - 7th
??: - 6th (I'll post porter and Icy reactions at this stage for ease)
Kaavel looks around to see what the others in the squad are doing.
Blaze, already on edge due to being stuck in this godsforsaken jungle, looks around nervously for the source of the buzzing.
"Time to earn our pay again, boys." Darkbiter says as he stands by with bow ready to fire.
"Some kinda big bugs!"
"Doc ken ye litses up a fire an smoke tah keep em away!"
Cort looks nervous, trying desperately to see the source.
He draws his dueling blade, a bit awkwardly with his left hand, and ties his weapon cord into place, not wanting to lose it. "What the hell is that sound? It's damned irritating." He says, obviously pretty on edge.
The trees on the opposite side of the clearing shudder momentarily before a wave of activity bursts forth from them. A swarm of oversized insects sweep across the clearing before impacting upon the expedition like a wave upon a shore. Each of the flies is roughly a foot long, with a sharp stinger on their tail. The drone of their wings grows exponentially in volume until is almost drowns out the sound of your thoughts.
As they reach the expedition they fall upon you with singleminded focus, repeatedly stabbing at you with their tails seeking to pierce your flesh. Two of the bugs attack each of you, while more still set upon the porters.
Blaze: and
Cort: and
Darkbiter: and (assuming you don't drop one with your readied action)
Doc: and
Grusk: and
Kaavel: and
Sentis: and
After the initial wave of revulsion from their advance, you can notice that the porters and Vankermans are attempting to fight back.
Corporal Valorious' voice raises above the awful drone as you hear him shout "Zerplatzen!" and one of the flies attacking him drops to the ground singed and dead.
Initiative Order: Kaavel, Blaze, Doc, Darkbiter, Cort, Bugs, Porters / Icy, Sentis, Grusk
"Курвин син" Cort spat in Kellish as the stinger scrapes his unprotected shoulder. Quickly flipping his blade forward he tries to end the thing that hit him.
Cort crows as he cuts into the damnable little insect. "Blood for blood you tiny bastarg. That's the Restov way." He shares with a fierce grin peeking under his hat.
Blaze lashes out at one of the bugs that attacked him."Godsforsaken.stupid.jungle.and.it's.godsforaken.stupid.bugs."
...I dont think I couldve found a repellant strong enough for these nasty bugs...
Barely avoiding their stings I draw my scimitar and slash at the nearest fly
for
Sentis scimitar slices into the belly of one of the flies, spraying ichor in an arc. It drops to the ground, and the buzzing grows infinitesimally quieter.
Kaavel looks grim than swings his fists at one of the flies.
Darkbiter takes his free shot at the insects as they emerge from the trees.
When they get closer, he drops his bow, letting hang from the cord, draws his sword, and attacks again.
"Damn big bugs an a nasty sting as well!"
Greataxe Attack
Damage
"Bug poison?"
Roll to confirm critical ;)
Grusk lashes out with his axe and cleaves a fly in twain.
Kaavel tries to swat the creatures with his hands but finds only air.
Blaze slices into a fly with his scimitar but fails to cause mortal damage.
Doc?
Darkbiter cooly responds to the threat, his arrow skewering one and he blade taking care of the second.
Cort's blade make short work of one of the flies assailing him as well.
Doc comes alive with Grusk asking him a question!
Doc grabs his earthbreaker and attempts to swat one of the bugs….
Attack
Damage
Doc's earthbreaker catches one of the bugs full on the body and carries it into the ground, turning it into a smear of green on the jungle dirt.
Remaining flies on squad: 2 on Blaze (1 injured), 1 on Cort, 2 on Kaavel, 1 on Doc, 1 on Sentis, 1 on Grusk, none on Darkbiter
The remaining flies keep up their frenzied attacks, tails seeking flesh with ferocity.
Fly attacks:
Blaze: and
Cort:
Doc:
Grusk:
Kaavel: and
Sentis:
Valorious spears the other of his flies on the end of his sword, grinning a discolored toothed smile before looking around.
The porters and Vankermans are still struggling with their attackers as well. You can see that a couple of flies have been dealt with, though also a few porters are sporting bleeding wounds.
Initiative Order: Kaavel, Blaze, Doc, Darkbiter, Cort, Bugs, Porters / Icy, Sentis, Grusk
Kaavel swings at the flies sting at me again.
"Haha, down you go... and how about you beastie?" Cort says, attempting to skewer his remaining fly.
Blaze attempts to finish off the bug he's attacking "Die, die, die"
Darkbiter turns his attention to the one on Sentis. "Help the porters. I'll help the rest of the squad."
Greataxe Attack
Damage
Confirm critical
"Tha tha way squash em instead Doc"
Doc attempts to swat the second bug!
earthbreaker….
Attack
Damage
Sentis ?
Grusk buries his greataxe in the head of his second assailant and the blade lodges there, the fly's body shuddering in the throes of expiration.
Kaavel has some difficulty connecting his blows, though a kick lands solidly and sends a fly spinning to the ground.
Blaze rounds on the injured fly in front of him and dismembers it's wings with a single cross stroke. It falls as though a stone and writhes ineffectually on the ground.
Doc's earthbreaker sweeps in front of him, though the insect seems to be one step ahead and the weapons meets nothing but air.
Darkbiter steps over to Sentis and ends the remaining fly attacking her.
Cort lashes out again with his blade, though the stroke misses his assailant by less than an inch.
Remaining flies: 1 on Blaze, 1 on Cort, 1 on Kaavel, 1 on Doc. Looking around you can see that Icy has dealt with his assailants, but four or five flies remain attacking the porters and Vankermans.
The droning sound is considerably lessened due to the dead flies, though that merely means that the cries of pain and screams of fear from the porters are more readily heard.
I offer an appreciative Thanks Darkbiter and look around ...these Steel Wolves are more than capable. Now we must help...the citizens! before moving towards the nearest fly attacking one of the Vankermans and slashing with my scimitar.
-
Sentis moves to assist the Vankermans, but fails to make any immediate impact on the flies.
Fly Attacks:
Blaze:
Cort:
Kaavel:
Doc:
The porters manage to deal with another couple of flies leaving three left attacking them and the Vankermans.
Kaavel looks at the fly before him than swings his fists at it once again.
Darkbiter will focus on the nearest fly still attacking the squad first, than any on the civilians.
Grusk heads over to take on one of the bugs after the porters!
Greataxe Attack
Damage
"No doc sqush em!"
Doc takes another swing.
Earthbreaker….
Attack
Damage
"Shoo fly don't bother me!"
"Damn these flies to the depths of Hell" Blaze says as he strikes again at another fly.
I make a backhanded slash at the fly I just missed.
-
-
Sentis brings his scimitar across a fly's belly and it falls to the floor leaking ichor.
Having dealt with his own assailants, Grusk moves to help the porters - his greataxe making short work of an insect.
Kaavel lashes out with his limbs akimbo, impacting with a open hand against an fly's eye - crushing it like a rotten egg. His flurry continues as he kicks out to kill the remaining fly attacking Doc.
Blaze strikes at the remaining fly attacking him though is unable to land a blow.
Having been freed from assailing flies, Doc moves to assist Blaze but his earthbreaker just whistles through open air.
Darkbiter moves to assist Blaze and bisects a fly clean in half.
With renewed morale from the squads rescue, the porters take care of the remaining flies with fist and club. Musangi moves about the group talking quickly in Polyglot taking stock of the injuries.
Robert Vankerman turns to Cpl Valorious "Corporal, while we regroup can your Wolves make sure there are no more of these accursed insects waiting to attack?"
Icy nods then turns to the squad and shoos them in the direction the flies came from "You heard the money, off you go". He leans against a tree and fishes around in his tunic for a drink.
Not stopping to wiping the discusting remnants from my blade; I hustle off into the bush looking for more of the annoying flies.
-
and ready an attack.
There are a few dead flies around the pool in various states of decomposition, but you can't see anything resembling larval or pre-adult stages of development.
In the centre of the pool there is a partially protruding human shaped skeleton that looks long dead, but appears to still have a leather shoulder bag around it's remains.
...i wish i had the power to purify this pond but i reckon even mosquitos need a place sutiable to their nature..
I wade out into the pond probing with my scimitar to retrieve the satchel from the corpse.
You hook the satchel easily and are able to retrieve it with no incident. The skeleton parts at the neck and slides into the water once its possession is purloined. As you raise the satchel you see water draining from its base, so its clear it isn't waterproof. You are able to retreat from the pond without incident, apart from soaked shoes and a coat of algae from the knees down.
Making my back to dry ground I speak to whoever else is around
I sure hope that whatever is in here was worth squishy boots. Let's see what it is.
I'll wait for the other to gather around before opening the bag.
I also hope its survived being wet so long. Few things do.
Darkbiter will follow behind Sentis, using stealth to try and get the drop on anything that might jump out.
When they get to the pool Darkbiter will find a good place to hide with his bow out and keep on eye out for trouble as Sentis tries to figure out how to deal with the skeleton.
Darkbiter scans the trees from his place in hiding, searching for threats. His eyes narrow and fingers tighten on the bowstring when he hears some leaves rustling... but when he looks in that direction he only sees the departing backside of a monkey.
Sentis gingerly peels back the top of the satchel to be greeted by a bag full of sludge. In the action of tipping it out on the ground, the bag's stiching finally gives way and it tears open down the sides.
Amongst the detritus of decayed cloth, you find some coins, a dagger with a rusted and pitted blade, a jeweled flask that was unfortunately separated from its stopper and a embossed leather-bound book.
Amongst the expedition, the porters have bound their wounds and the Vankermans are conversing quietly with Corporal Valorious. Musangi has moved back to the Bulu-Bulu tree and is calling out to the porter that climbed the tree earlier - but has yet to get a response.
"Seems we ken regroup, doc says smoke might keep em away, light a torch o two an be ready tah make smoke."