"Agreed." Alexa starts to step into the shadows, but winces and puts a hand on where the cockroach bit her.
Aberus looked at the remains of the camp and said, "I am sure this is what attracted the roaches. I, too, agree with Ithilwen. Unfortunately, that could mean there are more of the pests, too." He grimaced briefly.
"I am scratched, myself. Here, Alexa, I'll take care of both of us."
Alexa straightens herself up after Aberus channels healing energy. "Ah. Much better, thank you."
She then moves to scout out the tunnels ahead, moving silently.
Congratulations on your win. You have so far defeated a lot of bugs, big ones at that! Now, which tunnel would you like to take? I have you in the Northern one, but would you like to go South or just continue on?
Uriel casts Detect Evil for one round down each tunnel. If he senses nothing, he shrugs and goes whichever way everyone else does. If he detects something, he halts them to study it further before proceeding.
Carefully, you wander into the next cavern. Dusty debris falls like rain from the ceiling with the lighter particles drifting like snow. The cave feels unstable as if it could shake and collapse on your heads.
After two long fights, your sense are charged and you can hear hissing.
Perception DC 20
There's a large snake, and it looks agitated and likely injured.
Sorry for the short post. Someone is angry at me on my end.
Alexa continues on, oblivious to any serpentine threats, injured or otherwise.
Arloric spots the snake and frowns immediately.
"Poor little one...I'll see if there's anything I can do for it."
He knew he had to calm the snake first so it wouldn't bite when he tried to help it.
Ithilwen takes no part in the decision process, almost instinctively deferring to the wisdom of the Sun Goddess speaking to them through Aberus; when the group presses on, so does she. She keeps herself close to Alexa, the two women forming the vanguard of their ragtag expedition.
Stepping into the next cave, she's greeted with an hissing sound, which her keen elven eyes trace back to a seemingly injured snake coiling among some rocks. She's about to give the signal to attack when Arloric's intervention freezes her in her steps.
perception check
Aberus cautiously followed the others into the adjoining cavern. There was this period of a couple of years when he was younger that he and his mother had to share their home with pests of various sorts including roaches---though at least those were the normal size---and he was thankful to put the remnants of the campsite behind him. Those were not good times. Everything was hard to come by, even a good night's rest.
He was still thinking about this when he nearly walked into Arloric, who had stopped suddenly.
"What is it?"
"A hunter of the small, a noble serpent laid low by a wound, and probably just as scared as we are."
Arloric flexes his fingers and sighs.
"My own healing magic is spent. What of you, Aberus? If I can keep him calm, could the Dawnflower's light mend him? Or we could at least bind his injury to heal the mundane way, when he next sheds his skin..."
"I can heal anything that lives, though I cannot keep up this pace for much longer. I still have one or two spells that I can use, and I can draw upon her power directly maybe two or three more times."
Druids are known for their way with animals. Can you perhaps, Aloric, calm the creature down? she inquires.
Since we've had very long combats I'm going to tweak this scenario a little. The start of this module is pretty much a grind. So, I'm going to follow what you guys want to do. Ahead of you is a snake, it's injured and dangerous. You can tell from the map that there isn't a lot of room. Yes, you can kill it which would be safe or maybe you can think of something more heroic.
I wanted to post this yesterday, but I failed to hit submit....and, it looks like I don't need to. ;)
Tomorrow I'm going to respond >:P
Uriel doesn't notice the snake until the others react to it. He recoils, being no friend to serpents, but lets the nature-priest take the lead.
Arloric frowns.
"I'll give it a try, though be prepared to fight the little fellow if it doesn't work. My...unique...condition can make animals skittish around me, even though I'm a druid. That, coupled with his injury, may make him scared enough to lash out."
Alexa pauses as Arloric approaches the snake.
"...can we put the poor thing to sleep somehow?"
Aberus nodded his head in agreement. "I am with you Arloric. Let's try this. I don't want to fight a creature just because it is injured and scared. I can use a spell, but that would require me to touch it. If I channel Sarenrae's power, I can do it from here, but of course it may not associate her grace with us unless you are touching it at the time."
He considered Alexa's words and added, "Good idea. Telerin? Is this something you can do?"
If the druid is unable to calm it down I can attempt to put the snake to sleep says the elf.
The seven of you huddle at the entrance of this small cave watching this snake. It moves strangely, almost awkwardly. It sways as if it were bobbed in whiskey and before it drowned was suddenly let go. However, it's eyes are dead on you, focused. It's tongue lashes out quickly to catch your smells and perhaps taste your intentions.
ooc
Tomorrow after my tots go to bed (8pm CST -6GMT) I am going to start combat. You've had time to come up with a battle plan and it looks pretty heroic, I like where you characters are holding their hearts for this snake. Plus, we can do without another long combat encounter. So! Let's roll initiative and since we've had this time to contemplate the situation nobody is flat-footed.
Yay!
Arloric lowers himself to the floor until he's at the snake's eye level. He extends an open hand towards the snake, slowly, offering room for the snake to crawl up his arm if it wants.
"I greet you, hunter of the small. Be calm. I will not hurt you," he says quietly.
Iniative
Alexa opts to try a different tactic than Arloric, and fishes some jerky out of her pack.
"I hope it won't choke on these..." She mutters as she approaches the snake and waves the jerky before it.
"Hello, little one. Are you hungry?"
In the shadow, Ithilwen watches silently as Arloric tries to soothe the beast. For a moment, she allows herself to believe no weapon would be drawn in this encounter; a sudden, threatening hiss, however, tells her otherwise – she clenches her muscles and braces herself for combat.
[dice=Handle Animal] 7 + 2
These dice really do hate you, don't they?
The wound on its side is bright and angry, and by how the viper is acting it is simple to see that moving by it is not a simple thing. IN fact, it will likely strike and vipers are poisonous. The wet dribbling confirms this much.
So far it looks like Alexa has dibs. Her handle animal didn't do very much..in fact, all your attempts to appease the snake yielded nothing! It stays coiled up with its tiny beady eyes focused on you, waiting for you to get into range, but on its turn, that may change. Your initiative rolls were better, which is actually kind of good. Hope you are having fun!
[21]Alexa
[17]Aberus
[16]Uliel
[16]Ithilwen
[11]Snake
[5]Telerin
[]Arloric
Arloric glowers a bit as their attempts to calm the snake fail.
"Telerin," he says in a low voice to avoid startling the viper. "Get ready to cast your sleeping spell. It looks like the serpent is too stressed right now, and will snap at us if we get any closer."
The elf will draw some sand from a spell component pouch and begin to chant
Please, stay out of the way of this spell and do not further antagonize the snake/
Aberus saw Arloric try, and fail, to calm the angry and tense viper before them. It just stared back at him, and he was starting to look awfully exposed. He said, quietly, "Arloric, may her grace protect you, just in case," and cast a simple osiron that would bestow some protection against the viper's poison.
He then backed away, giving the snake what he hoped was a wide berth.
"Telerin, may your magic succeed where our skill could not."
The will save will be a 13.
Uriel crosses his fingers, but puts a hand on his sword's hilt, just in case.
Detect magic detects nothing. Everything is, unfortunately, very mundane. Even here in this, there isn't anything magical. The brooch appears utterly ordinary, despite being the most distinctive thing discovered.
VS DC 13
Throwing out her hands Telerin summons a cloud of lavender smoke to erupt like a firework. And it has a soothing smell that inspires images of cuddling up with fluffy blankets and curling up like cats by the fire. However, the power of the spell is confined in that 10' block. and the snake reeled back and opened its mouth wide to show off its dangerous saber-like teeth. Venom spurted onto the floor. Apparently, it is too agitated to sleep now.
ooc
I admit I am a little confused if you are all holding your actions or not so I rolled.
I admit I am a little confused if you are all holding your actions or not so I rolled.
Arloric inhales sharply.
"Aberus? Get ready to heal the snake. I'm going to distract it so if it does bite out of fear, it'll be so focused on me that you'll be able to reach it and heal it without getting bitten yourself."
Aberus nodded nervously in response to Arloric. "I am ready."
[b] I can try one more time. [/b[ she says. She can cast another spell through her bond with her ring.
Alexa holds her ground, unwilling to attack the wounded and pained snake.