Greenery pt 7
Yeah, definitely something wrong about all this.
The jungle grounds had 'consumed' things, it seems like. Left little in their wake. And you're on your way to a village. What happens if whatever's doing this reaches civilizxation?>
Garak slides down the trunk of the tree he was perched in. Once he's on the ground he slides his blade from his sheath, a heavy blocky-shaped falchion that somehow implies military design. "Is everyone up?" he says in a low voice, looking this way and that.
Bors is not paid to think philosophical thoughts. He is, in fact, paid to stab people a lot. When not stabbing people, he mainly keeps to himself and tries not to draw attention. Dressed like a dockworker of modest means, he gives the impression of furious action held in check. By unreliable means, by and large. Not that he goes berserk at random times. But when he cuts loose, he really cuts loose. He nods to Garak about being up, and he's pleased to see that the swiftclaws have gotten themselves good and lost. Hopefully we'll finish this on foot. He's not giid with the riding.
Kisaiya slowly works her way down the trunk, looking one way and then the other as her mouth pulls off to the side. Where exactly did they put the swift claws anyway? Well, either way, she entrusts that to other people as she looks toward their guide. "Hey! How much farther to the camp?" Oh crap! She opens her bag, looks in and... Phew. Both spiders are still there and probably still look healthy.
Of course not.
After a quick hunt, you find your swiftclaws.
The good news is that they're not dead. The odd news si that they aren't dead. /So much else/ died. It's like whatever touched the travelers, for example, but passed over the jungle's native flora and fauan in some ways.
Interesting... Also, their ropes are gone. That's why it took you a while to find them. Ropes gone, but the Swiftclaws are unharmed. Looks like you're gonna have to try to round them up.
"Hey, who's good at corraling thing?" Kisa asks as she looks between the others, "Not it!"
Bors doesn't find it interesting that the swiftclaws have been located. It's downright disappointing. He shugs to Kisaiya's question; he's no good at all with animals, and in fact suggests, "Just go on?" Because he would be quite pleased to go on without them. That's a lot of words for him, an acknowledgement that this is a thing he feels strongly about.
Garak sighs. "Just think of them as friends," he advises. "Talk to them." Eschewing the harness, he tries to lead one of the switclaws towsrds Bors.
GAME: Garak rolls handle animal: (20)+4: 24
GAME: Bors rolls handle animal: Trained Use Only: 0
GAME: Bors rolls ride: (14)+0: 14
Bors glowers at the swiftclaw as Garak leads the animal over to him. He scowls deeply at it, and mutters quietly to himself rather than talking to the swiftclaw. By treating it like a narrow dinghy as likely to roll over and sump him in the water as anything else, he manages to mount the one Garak leads over to him. He still looks uncomfortable with the situation, and it's pretty clear he's not going to be able to manage anything at all that might take a little skill.
GAME: Kisaiya rolls ride: (7)+10: 17
Before too long, once the first Swift is mounted, the others begin to fall in line once you locate and gather them back up. They hadn't spread out too far but they do seem unsettled.
Your Sith-amakr guide, the greyscale, seems to be eager to get a move on. He's concerned for their well being.
And thus, you're on your way!
Kisaiya is on the swiftclaw as they make their way, sort of perching on it. She's still not to used to riding these things as she sort of leans one way, then the other, and lastly... Yep, still uncomfortable. "Hmm."
Garak is getting more and more used to riding these reptillian creatures. "Where to?" he looks at the others. "Back to the portal?" He looks at the guide. "Or to your Empress with the intelligence we've gathered?"
"No, to the township," says Guide Rtharmon, the grey-scaled Sith looks uncomfortable. "We need to make sure they know about this. It's possible it's already reached them!"
Anmd wit hthat, he kicks his SWiftclaw off in the dir3ectionof the Sith village, worriedly.
GAME: Bors rolls fortitude: (18)+8: 26
GAME: Kisaiya rolls fort: (4)+10: 14
GAME: Garak rolls fort: (13)+11: 24
Another ride. For a few hours, acutally. The rain, bugs, and more are omnipresent here in Am'shere. You can hear the sounds of the deadly jungle all around you but...
"..we should be here. The village is... t he villiage is /right over there/," he points a thickening of teh trees.
"It should be.. there should a walkway! Up towards the trees! It's gone!"
Bors grumbles as the guide just kicks his swiftclaw into motion. He needs a lot more grumbling and cajoling and kicking to make it happen, and the thing still gives him fits, though he's butch enough to manhandle the thing in the right direction by brute force. All day it's like this, and his backside is beyond sore. When the village we're being led to is gone, his expression goes even more sour than normal, which is really saying something.
Garak glances at the others. "Just like the ropes?" he gestures at the Swiftclaw he's riding. Then he edges the mount forward, to overtake the Rtharmon.
GAME: Kisaiya rolls 5: (2)+5: 7
Kisaiya is looking toward the area, intently, as if trying to figure out what exactly is going on. A reach up to scratch lightly at her chin and she ponders, staring. She hops off her swiftclaw, trying to take a closer look. "Hmm.." Another pause to look, "NOPE! Not friend spider."
GAME: Bors rolls Profession/Fisher: (2)+11: 13
Bors isn't sure what's going on. But there's no fish involved at all as far as he can tell, and he's not getting attacked, and so it holds little interest for him. Anyhow, most of his attention is on not falling off this swiftclaw. Why can't it be stable, like a dinghy in a storm?
"...gods above and below," breathes the Sith in trade, though he lets out a mourfnul Draconic curse. He dismounts his Swiftclaw and proceeds to head towards the township, cautiously encopuraging you to follow.
AS you approach, it is shown that truly there is... nothing. Whatever /was/ here is gone.
Just... /gone/.
Not just gone. It's like the jungle opened up and swallowed it whole.
Bors isn't sure what we're supposed to find, but it seems not to be here. He peers expectantly at the guide, because the guide is supposed to be guiding us. That's his whole job. "What now?" he asks, the reins in a deathgrip, which isn't making his ride any easier.
Kisaiya travels along with the guide, trying to take the swift claw along with her - just in case. Her eyes roam about and as the Sith points it out... "Ohhhhh." She says, looking toward one side, then the other. \
Kisaiya travels along with the guide, trying to take the swift claw along with her - just in case. Her eyes roam about and as the Sith points it out... "Ohhhhh." She says, looking toward one side, then the other. "Whelp..." Kisaiya pulls out her scythe, a very common tool for cutting down plants. She slices into the undergrowth, checking to see if there's anything under it - like the lost town.
"This would seem to be the work of the Teacher - he's found a way to replace the order of civilization with..." Garak gestures around bleakly. "I fear for what happened to the people who lived here..."
"...seems like something he might do, though he has always spoken of growing the jungle, not purging the Sith within it. It would make sense that those who dwell in towns might become his target, though. But why the /coins/ with your Queen stamped on them?" He means Altima, of course, and he's still bnadly, badly, badly shaken.
AS you push your way into the township's former grounds, you do indeed start to find small signs of...life. That was present. Bits and pieces that weren't entirely consumed. A metal ring here, for example, or a piece of bone there.
Yeah, bone.
The ground starts to... move. Shift.
UH oh.
If only the bone moved in a sort of whirling motion, then Kisaiya would know who to curse for such a thing.
Suddenly a gleaming lance is held in one of Garak's hands. He holds it raised so that the tip points at the sky for now. But he also leans over to speak to his swiftclaw in a low voice, apparently explaining the basic of mounted combat, and...
GAME: Garak refreshes spells.
GAME: Garak casts Shield Other. Caster Level: 10 DC: 16
GAME: Garak casts Magic Vestment. Caster Level: 10 DC: 17
Bors looks alarmed as the ground starts to shift, and he kicks his heels hard into the swiftclaw's ribs, urging it clear of the village with as much haste as it can manage. If it's not enough haste, his urgency seems to say, he can dismount and drag the swift bodily. For the moment, though, the swift seems to agree with getting clear post-haste.
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round One - Init 20.
It is now Bors' turn! Kisaiya is next!
The ground errupts in a wave.
Like if the earth were capable of generating a tidal wave, this would be it. Much smaller, though, thankfully.
Bors boots the swiftclaw hard in the ribs, His armor is glamered, so it doesn't look like steel plate, but those are definitely hard boots, and Bors is all sinew and gristle, meaning he has a kick like a mule. He hangs on for dear life as he rides the swiftclaw away from the center of the village as fast and hard as he can manage.
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round One - Init 16.
It is now Kisaiya's turn! Garak is next!
GAME: Note Flat-footed ended.
"WOH!" Kisa says, as the wave of ground starts up. Hery eyebrows shoot up and and she runs perpendicular to the direction its moving as she calls out to the others, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!"
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round One - Init 13.
It is now Garak's turn! Plantwve is next!
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round One - Init 11.
It is now Plantwve's turn! Bors is next!
GAME: Whirlpool reverses the initiative order.
Round One - Init 13.
It is now Garak's turn! Plantwve is next!
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d3: (2): 2
THe wave seems to go after Kisaiya!
It's like a rolling beneath the earth, moving it in a wave-liek fashion, yes, as if the earth were water crashing against a shoreline.
Berhind it, the earth is left looking rather pristine, all the same.
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round One - Init 11.
It is now Plantwve's turn! Bors is next!
GAME: NEW ROUND!
Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Two - Init 20.
It is now Bors' turn! Kisaiya is next!
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Two - Init 16.
It is now Kisaiya's turn! Garak is next!
As Kisaiya and Bors ride off in different directions, Garak urges the swiftclaw to ride in yet a third, doing his best to stay close enough to both to aid either. When he sees the wace following Kisaiya, the priest turns in that direction. "Regroup!" he calls out in his best command voice. "Reeeegrooooup!..."
Bors pauses in his retreat as the wave of earth seems to focus on Kisaiya rather than him. He reins in, which can't be comfortable for the swiftclaw, but he's coiled, poised to spur the beast into motion if the waves of earth come his way again.
Kisa starts shrieking as she's being chased by the wave, turning 90 degrees again to run perpendicular to the wave but now running more toward Bors and Garak. "BAD DAY! BAD DAY! BAD DAY!!!"
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Two - Init 13.
It is now Garak's turn! Plantwve is next!
GAME: Garak rolls 1d20+10: (20)+10: 30
(New BB message (3/107) posted to 'Plot Announcements' by Grush: Hunters of Monsters Part 2 (CLOSED)
Garak's eyes widen as Kisaiya turns his way. Well, he did call for them to regroup. Thinking furiously, Garak raises his holy symbol. "Lady of Battles, I know not what curse threatens us, but your power can end it!"
The wave... halts.
Hesitates.
Disperses. There, at that place, the earth churns restlessly. Whatever Garak did seems to've at least /stalled/ it.
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Two - Init 11.
It is now Plantwve's turn! Bors is next!
GAME: NEW ROUND!
Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Three - Init 20.
It is now Bors' turn! Kisaiya is next!
Bors decides that the danger is over, or at least suppressed, and he'll ride back to Kisaiya and Garak, joining up with them and finding out what the plan is for what to do next. Back to the entrance to this jungle? Back to Alexandria? Is there more to do here?
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Three - Init 16.
It is now Kisaiya's turn! Garak is next!
GAME: Garak casts Dispel Magic. Caster Level: 10 DC: 17
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Three - Init 13.
It is now Garak's turn! Plantwve is next!
Fazahd has arrived.
GAME: Garak rolls perception: (7)+17: 24
Garak rides around the saell
Garak rides around the swell of earth but them emerges again. "We don't have much time," he says urgently. "I believe it will begin moving again soon. It's some sort of living spell." He looks around hopefully in case anyone else has an idea.
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Three - Init 11.
It is now Plantwve's turn! Bors is next!
GAME: NEW ROUND!
Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Four - Init 20.
It is now Bors' turn! Kisaiya is next!
Bors rides around just behind Garak. If we're together, we fight together or escape together. If we split up, then it's all mixed up, and while he normally doesn't care much about what others do in a fight, this is a strange situation, and sticking close will make it easier if it turns out that it's him needing to be rescued.
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Four - Init 18.
It is now Fazahd's turn! Kisaiya is next!
And so, Fazahd's great contribution is to unfurl his dissolver weapon and begin to BLAST AWAY AT THE LIVING, CHURNING EARTH. "I concur, brother," he says to Garak, loosing a fist-thick ray of boiling greenlight into the mess. "A living spell! We must visit it with great violence to ensure your dispersal remains effective!"
BLAST IT, HOLMES.
GAME: Fazahd rolls 1d20+10: (10)+10: 20
GAME: Fazahd rolls 3d6+4: (14)+4: 18
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Four - Init 16.
It is now Kisaiya's turn! Garak is next!
The ray strikes home into the churning earth, rending much of it to tar - which turns into a geyser of black, sticky asphalt that happily does not spread outward but upward, falling back to the ground as tarry rain around the pit's borders.
GAME: Dorkisa rolls ScythePA1: (8)+ScythePA1: 8
GAME: Dorkisa rolls ScythePA 1: aliased to 16: (15)+16: 31
GAME: Dorkisa rolls ScythePA D: aliased to 2d4+17: (6)+17: 23
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Four - Init 13.
It is now Garak's turn! Plantwve is next!
And so the sheer terror of running this way, and then that way, and then this way and... Kisa charges toward the ground - yelling at it - and brings the scythe about in a large arc. She's, well, trying to reap the ground. Because that would make sense, right? Wait... So does this make her a farmer now? Is there such a thing as a jungle farmer? "MY HEAD HURTS!"
GAME: Garak casts Flame Strike. Caster Level: 10 DC: 19
GAME: Garak rolls 10d6: (35): 35
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Four - Init 11.
It is now Plantwve's turn! Bors is next!
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+3: (1)+3: 4 (EPIC FAIL)
Garak raises a fist above his head, and then brings it down as if he's smacking it down on an imaginary table. For a moment nothing happens and his swiftclaw cranes its long neck to look back dubiously at the cleric. But then finally a column of divine fire comes slamming down on the wave.
Finally, despite the massive damage, the earth is stating to... recompile a bit?
You don't have much longer before it starts to move once more.
GAME: NEW ROUND!
Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Five - Init 20.
It is now Bors' turn! Fazahd is next!
GAME: Bors rolls 1d20+13: (16)+13: 29
GAME: Bors rolls 1d20+13: (14)+13: 27
GAME: Bors rolls 1d20+8: (5)+8: 13
GAME: Bors rolls 1d20+8: (15)+8: 23
GAME: Bors rolls 1d20+13: (14)+13: 27
GAME: Bors rolls 1d20+8: (17)+8: 25
GAME: Bors rolls 2d8+32: (9)+32: 41
GAME: Bors rolls 1d8+13: (8)+13: 21
GAME: Bors rolls 2d8+26: (13)+26: 39
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round Five - Init 18.
It is now Fazahd's turn! Dark Kisa is next!
Bors grumbles as he sees shooting the ground actually had some effect. Well. He can do that, too. Drawing the kukri knives he carries he rides up and stabs at the ground. He stabs and slashes at it, as if the churning soil were alive. Well, the way it was rippling, it -did- seem alive. But anything that's alive can be killed, and Bors can stab -anything- if it'll hold still. It looks like he's a furious farmer, hacking into the earth with his kukri knives and causing sprays of churned earth to fill the air, but .... well, this is what he's here for, yes? To stab things. So he'll stab anything.
GAME: Fazahd rolls 1d20+10: (7)+10: 17
GAME: Fazahd rolls 3d6+4: (8)+4: 12
GAME: Whirlpool removes the timestop.
Timestop by Whirlpool has left.
More acidic death from Fazahd, who continues to pour dissolving energy into the roiling earth-knot; for a moment it appears that he'd only just keep wounding the thing, when suddenly the nexus of force suddenly finds itself stretched to the breaking point - with too little matter left to bind together, the reforming wave of earth suddenly shudders and crumbles away, reduced to black, stinking mud.
"There we are," Fazahd says, his voice weirdly tinny as it passes through his helmet. "Done."
A small glint can be seen at the herart of the churned, broken earth.
Garak climbs off of the swiftclaw and kneels next to the glint. He reaches into a satchel he wears at his belt and produces the coin they found earlier, holding it up ready to compare. The he reaches down into the rubble.
Bors holds both blades at the ready as he moves in to cover Garak as he investigates the glint. He, himself, is not an investigating person, but it's a good quality in others. And Garak's got the magic, so that's good.
Kisaiya moves back and away from the mud, "Nope! Nope! Nope!" She keeps the mud from touching her boots as she whips the scythe about and resheathes it. Her hand point out toward the glint, "What's that? I bet it's another coin." Kisaiaya turns her head about, looking for where that gardener is hiding.
That poor gardener.
Still, it IS another scarred Altima-wrought coin.