Dambreth, the trail continues along the beach for some time. Judging from the sun's position in the sky, it must be mid-morning. You confirm what Si-Yi noticed about the tracks - they are weighty, and deeply driven into the soft sand, making tracking it quite easy. The jungle is on your left as you journey. Sunlight doesn't penetrate more than a few feet into the thick undergrowth...the thought of traveling through such perilous and unfamiliar territory would give most men pause. For you, it is seen only as a challenge for you and Scram to overcome, with the grace of your god.
You travel for a good two hours, by your best reckoning. The prints stop once, to sit beneath a tree for an unknown length of time, before continuing. Eventually, there's a small break in the jungle where a stream flows down to the beach, and the prints turn inward toward the island's heart.
Further down the beach, you see a large watery cave at the base of a tall cliff. Do you follow the prints, or investigate the cave?
Dambreth and Scram pause and assess the situation. Realizing that they are at a fork in the road, Dambreth sends Scram running back to Sinathel to let her know the situation and to bring the rest of the group to him.
Dambreth kneels on the sand of the beach watching the cave. He searches for that small quiet space within him that he never knew he had until he had been filled with the power of Gaia and the Elven God.
Oh Gaia, please show me the direction that you would have me go.
Hawke would follow quietly. He did not enjoy the sand. It got into places and refuesd to budge from it's new foot hold without vigorous and thorough cleaning. For this he gave it credit, but none the less he was not one to lose a battle.
Olivius follows. The heat is oppressive compared to the cold of the mountain and the humidity presses on him. He packs the cloak and slowly sheds anything else he can spare.
Olivius is eventually down to just his leather armor and breeches. It's hot, but not stifling.
Dambreth, this is your first time calling upon your God this way. It's different than what you're used to, and you feel uncertain. At first, nothing seems to happen. You know the magic worked - mostly - you felt it in your heart. Why is nothing happening? the thought grips your mind and sends a shard of cold fear down your back despite the hot day.
Then, a breeze picks up from the ocean. Spray from the waves hitting the rocks is carried on the wind and soothes the worst of the heat from all of your brows. A bird emerges from the jungle, and makes a chittering laughing cry as it watches all of you for a moment. Then, it takes wing and disappears back into the canopy of the island's jungle, overhead.
Hawke would trudge along behind the group as he keeps rear guard. His armor was growing warm, but he had learned to bare the worse of it in his travels as a caravan guard.
*nods*
Dambreth follows the bird with his eyes and then turns to face the others. "It's a sign from Gaia that we need to follow the trail into the heart of the island."
Olivius shrugs and tuggs on his clothing. If the center of the island means less heat and/or a cool breeze, then, by all means, lead on!
The elven ranger nods at his party and turns to face the jungle.
This is what you see, but minus the temple/city structure. Overhead, the sun shines brightly down on you, while the jungle stream runs past your feet. There's no longer any traces of the trail that you can see through the undergrowth, but it looks fairly difficult to breach the thick wall of trees to the right and left of the stream, so it's probably fairly safe to assume that whomever walked here before took the easiest path.
The heat eases under the canopy's cover, lowering to the mid-80s as you walk along. The island gives Sinathel in particular a strange feeling, with her connection to the world's jungles - it's like coming home from a long trip, only to find that things are subtly moved around and not the way you left them. This jungle is like and yet unlike the jungles she grew up in.
Overhead, animals the likes of which you've never seen jump from tree branch to tree branch, following you. They look like apes, but have squatter legs and more oversized, muscular arms. When they catch you looking at them, they throw coconuts at Hawke!
As they hurl their missiles, you hear hooting and deep grunting vocalizations coming from the troop. Sinathel, you understand "Leave!" "Turn back!" "Go away!" and other various coarse insults.
"Sinathel, tell those monkeys to stop unless they want to be hunted by a very ugly cougar."
Hawke will curse at the coconut throwing bastards while retrieving one of the coconuts and tossing it back at the closest ape.
Hawke throws the coconut true. Defying its non-aerodynamic shape, it spins through the air and clocks a gorilla-creature in the face. Hooting, the entire tribe begins to shout at you, the cacophony shaking the leaves from the trees, and retreat into the jungle. A moment later, and their shouts have receded into inaudibility.
Further on ahead, the river continues winding its way toward the volcano at the center of the island. Dambreth finds the trail of the ship's owner again in the riverbanks, but he notices larger tracks as well. They look round and flat, and are as big as dinner plates, going in the same direction as the tracks you're following. Sinathel recognizes tracks that look very similar to jungle elephants.
Dambreth sighs quietly as Hawke deals with his gorilla problem and then begins to follow the tracks of their prey deeper into the island.
"What order were the tracks made? The elephant or our quarry?" Does it seem like the Elephant tracks approached the river and are just going the same path as our quarry? Or are there suddenly Elephant tracks?
The elephant tracks emerge from a large hole in the treeline to the river, and then start going in the same direction the humanoid tracks do. You also notice that the tracks grow gradually further and further apart as they move along the riverfront.
Further apart as in the elephant is getting bigger? Or further apart as in the two sets (elephant and humanoid) are going different ways?
The stride gets longer as it goes. Longer distance between footfalls.
Looks like the elephants were running for some reason...chasing or be chased?
My money's on chasing. Or stamped, I guess. Oh well, lets keep our eyes open.
Hawke would give the other's an inquisitive look. "What the hell is an elepahnt? And does it taste good?"
"Chasing is likely very accurate. And you want to know what an Elephant looks like?" A grin stretches across Sinathel's face and her eyes light up as she looks at Hawke.
"Well it may be useful considering I've never encountered this beast you speak of. From what it sounds like, it should be greeted with the end of my ax if I come upon one."
Dambreth listens to the chitter-chatter going on around him with one ear while still scanning the trail. Scram alertly watches the jungle around them. Cautiously Dambreth follows the tracks forward towards the volcano that dominates the skyline.
"No, most of them are not aggressive unless you anger or threaten them first, they are just... large. Their skin is grey and covered with sparse hair. Their ears are large and thin, because they use it to control their body temperature. They have long trunks, that act as our hands do for us. They also have large tusks. Their feet are flat, round and cushioned with toenails. The skin on the bottom is tough and the cushion quiets the footfalls. They also their feet to hear what is going on around them, through the earth. They are smart and gentle, unless you anger them. The females and their calves travel together, and are lead by the oldest female. These family groups rarely have a male traveling with them, usually because its a calf or they are there to mate. The males, once they mature leave to join bachelor groups before traveling alone later in life. Though you should be cautious if the bull is in musth, as they are very aggressive during that time and attack anything."
Hawke would shudder as he imagines a gigantic beast with a large ears and a long nose that came to end in a human hand.
"Clearly these beasts will be some of the most disturbing creatures I've come to see yet."
"They are not disturbing, they are majestic. You must have never found come across a snakehead if you think Elephants are disturbing." Sinathel's voice is teasing, even if it did have a slightly dark note when she said snakehead.
Not understanding her meaning, Hawke replies simply. "I split every snake's head that I come across. Those bloody bastards kill too many with their damn venom."
Dambreth turns back to the group with an annoyed expression. In Elvish to Sinathel "Quietly cousin...we know not what made the elephants break into a run. Perhaps you could take to the air to give us a wider view as Scram and I follow along on the ground?"
Sinathel bit back her likely scathing remark to Hawke at Dambreth's words, giving him a nod. Instead she focuses on shifting, her skin turning into bright colors and her hair changing into feathers. As her shifting finishes, this is the form Sinathel choose to take. "Be careful." With that, as a colorful Imperial Amazon Parrot, she took flight, letting her coloration hide her.
Are you staying under the canopy of the trees or flying above them?
Since the Imperial Amazon Parrot, is typically a loaner that lives in the treetops and has coloration that blends in to hide it, I'll see what I can see from under the canopy first. I'll fly above if I think I can get a better view after I check under the canopy (since the canopy tends to be thick and would likely be hard to see through).
As you make your way into the treeline, you can easily notice the large highway plowed through the trees, you assume by the elephant. Normally, despite their bulk, elephants are quite graceful animals - if they're knocking trees out of their way left and right, you'd say there was a reason for them to do it deliberately.
So, you're looking high and low, keeping your ears sharp and your eyes peeled for evidence and clues. Sounds to me like a Discern Realities roll is needed here.
Sinathel looks high and low, concerned not only for the safety and well-being of those with her, but the elephants as well.
*What happened here recently?
*What should I be on the look out for?
*What here is not as it appears to be?
*What happened here recently?
As you fly, your keen parrot senses pick up blood on the trunks of some of the nearby trees. It's fairly high up and smeared in such a way that leads you to believe the elephant may have been wounded. A wound-crazed elephant is no trivial matter, not at all.
*What should I be on the look out for?
Narrowing your eyes in concern at the blood, you fly a little further into the jungle. You find a spear, lodged at an angle in the dirt. There's red fur wrapped around the haft near the blade to absorb blood and keep it out of the wielders eyes during rapid stabs. The design is quite primitive, but effective. Be on the lookout for hostile natives to the island.
*What here is not as it appears to be?
Your search momentarily finished, you perch on a tree branch near the river where your party waits. You see Hawke and Si-Yi standing off to the side, and Dambreth standing apart from the rest, scratching Scram's fur as he waits for you. Olivius is seated on a flat stone under the shade of the trees.
You turn your attention to the prints. Strange...no blood on the sand...there's something about these prints that just doesn't add up.
Dambreth and Scram both drop to their bellies to closely examine the tracks.
Suddenly overcome by desire to feel at least marginally useful, Si-Yi steps behind Dambreth and starts "helpfully" pointing out things that he thinks that the other elf may have missed.
Somehow, he manages to be more helpful than annoying. Barely.
Seeing Dambreth drop down to get a closer look at the tracks, Hawke will take a look around to see if he can see anything that might help.
Olivius sits on his rock while his wilderness compatriots take care of... Whatever they were doing. This is the first decently cool patch of shade in what felt like miles and he didn't intend to leave it until absolutely necessary.
Sinathel looked for other birds and animals of the Jungle, perhaps one of them saw something as well.
Si-Yi and Hawke are glancing over the area together, when they both notice a track that Dambreth would've otherwise missed. The print is deep in the sand - this elephant was huge.