The Prodigal Son

Game Master doggziller


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Orc Barbarian 3

In his dreams, Puku again returned to that dark earthy place he had visited a few times in the past, when his mana ebbed at its lowest...

Though he knew not which direction lay salvation, he swum nonetheless through the earth, powerful strokes propelling along into the darkness of the underworld.

Puku gains 1 to swim & 1 to survival!

Calmly he continued to burrow through his dreamscape, cleaving through the earth with great spade like hands, not unlike the moles he had plucked from the dirt as a lad. When all of a sudden his hands felt the freedom of air, and before he could stop to gather his senses he had ploughed out of the earth like a worm on a wet day, and sat confused at teh bottom of an oblong shaped pit, with the twilight of dusk shedding a battleship grey light above.

As he sat blinking the soil from his eyes a voice called down to him, and he looked up to see a wizened old pakeha peering down from the lip of the hole, some 6 feet above him.

"Ho there friend! What's yer rush? Still a ways before your due in there eh?" Chuckled the pot bellied fellow, to which Puku just blinked and looked about him.

"No worries boy-o, just rattling your bones is all..." The strange figure reached into his robe and took out an ornate silver flask. "Here, warm yourself with a tipple of my personal drop!"

He tossed the flask into the pit and Puku grabbed it out of the air with ease. Turning it over in his hand he recognised it as the flask from that night at the Captains Repose.

Without burdening himself with foresight, Puku undid the flask and took a sip, at which he felt such warmth spread through his limbs. He could plainly see the muscles under his green skin writhe like eels in a sack and his tattoo's shone brightly with a fierce emerald coloured fire.

"Aye lad..." The strangers face was illuminated by Puku's glow and began to slowly contort into a grin. "We can do great things together you and I, as long as you keep up the good work. Keep dealing in death, and I'll turn a blind eye to the one great debt you seem so keen on paying."

Puku was intent on asking who the fvck this mad old honky was, but he found himself merely uttering "Aye, my Lord." submitting like a kicked spaniel.

The old fella snorted a laugh then locked eyes with the savage, suddenly taking on a grave countenance. "Well dont let me keep you..." and he threw a handful of dirt into the pit, which, on contact with Puku made the barbarian fall back into the earth as if he'd been knocked out of a tall tree.

He awoke with a start, flinging his ratty blanket aside he leapt to his feet. He was back on the island and could see outside the rest of his crew gathering their effects in the pre dawn light.

Puku gains 1 in acrobatics and 1 in perception. Then he looks at a fly or something and gains 1 in Know Nature!

That dream had a profound effect and with solemn expression he looked at his calloused hands, which seemed to him to still glow with an unearthly wild green. As he strapped his claymore to his back and attached his heavy iron bellyplate, he assured himself that no fiend or foe would come between him and his new mates, as he now knew death, and walked alongside it, allied and undaunted.

Puku is now an INVULNERABLE RAGER!. Recieving DR=half his level and gains EXTREME ENDURANCE meaning temperatures up to 60 degrees have no effect on him. Puku also gains feat POWER ATTACK meaning he can give fullas the mean bash eh! -1 to hit, +2 to dmg or +3 with double handed weapons.


Awesome! Old man V up in the piece!


Human Curmudgeon 35
doggziller wrote:
Awesome! Old man V up in the piece!

+1 on that!


Play Report 30/1/14

The heroes' sleep was punctuated with small seismic tremors - Apparicio, unaccustomed to roughing it, slept fitfully and awoke fatigued. Nevertheless the party rose to face the day with grim determination and a will to survive. (Apparicio refreshed himself via the useful expedient of transforming into Der Schrecken).

Orna read a passage from her "Daily Book of Inspirations", something odd about swimming with dolphins. Puku and Apparicio were uplifted in wonderment, Kat was unimpressed.

Taking stock of the situation, the party realised that while they had unlimited water supplies through the cantrips of Orna Goodgrace, food was a limited resource. So they elected to cook up the meat of the slaughtered donkeys. While Puku set to the task of butchery, the others broke up packing crates for firewood.

They decided to set their fire down near the water so some could hunt for salvage while the others cooked. As they were hauling the meat and wood away from the mine however, Puku looked up and was startled to see a figure watching them from about 100' inland, towards the crater. The observer was a well-formed naked woman with skin like burnished copper and hair of flame (Apparicio recognised this creature as a fire nymph, a native of the Plane of Fire, having read a cautionary tale about a novice Summoner's attempts to enjoy sexual congress with one such being).

The party looked back for a while, uncertain how to respond to the outsider's regard. Puku waved, and the nymph raised one arm in return, then turned and sauntered back inland, through the clouds of steam.

Soon afterwards, Kat and Der Schrecken were thrown into the air as the earth erupted under their feet - an attack by more outsiders - two Thoqqua, stone-plated burrowing worms with magma-hot flesh (this time Kat recognised them, having read "Top 10 Times To Leave Your Quarterstaff At Home" somewhere). The party dispatched the searing worms without too much difficulty. Conveniently, their corpses provided an excellent surface for grilling meat (the donkey turned out to be tastier than you might expect).

Scouring the water's edge turned up a crate with some edible supplies still intact, and Der Schrecken - sweeping the shore-line with Detect Magic, managed to grab up a Fan Feather Token from a rusty tin on the sea-bed, evidently lost by some mariner long ago.

Their packs now bearing a comforting weight of food, they set off to follow the trail around to the miner's camp on the west of the island. The first stretch of the trail skirts the rocky shore before switching back and clambering up the outer slope of the crater.

Passing above a calm inlet in the shoreline, the party could see beneath the water a sunken row-boat that appeared to have some loot scattered on the pebbly sea-bed around it. A positive hit on Detect Magic was the clincher for Der Schrecken, and he dived down to investigate. However, camoflaged among the rocks was a monstrous crustacean, almost as big as a man, which seized him in its poisonous claws.

Kat fired Rays of Frost down into the water and Puku dropped the rope and dived in after Der Schrecken - the crabby creature was destroyed, but its poison seems most potent and Der Schrecken's strength has been sapped considerably (-7 STR). We pause our tale with Der Schrecken and Puku down in the water, with a 10' slippery climb to the path above them.

BTW I've been looking up nautical terms a little bit, I think the boat that Orto and Lenny left on is probably better described as a "pinnace", whereas the jolly-boat would be Steady Kenn's row-boat.

Now you're learnin'!!!


BTW the description of a Fan Feather Token expressly says "It does not function on land", but that seems needlessly stifling to me, so I'm saying it will function on land, so long as you're pretty close to the ocean, i.e. you have line of sight to it. And it will always create an on-shore breeze.

Won't work underground etc...

But that could potentially allow for some creative application, some day...


Play Report 6/2/14 & 11/2/14

Working as a team, it wasn't difficult to get Der Schrecken and Puku safely up out of the water, along with the rotting, barnacle-studded chest. Der Schrecken was also able to dive down and scoop up a handful of shiny platinum pieces and a rusted sword with a fine golden hilt from the seabed, while Puku hacked off the eel-like tail from the aquatic monstrosity that had attacked his pal, for savory enjoyment at a later date.

Within the chest they found a couple of treasures, an silver-chased ivory drinking horn, and a gold censer with silver filigree, evidently lifted from a temple of Sarenrae. The silver was tarnished but otherwise these treasures were not in bad nick. Puku resolved to keep the drinking horn handy for future employment as a Pimp Cup.

The party then continued on the path which switched back and crawled up the outer wall of the crater, affording fine views of the glittering ocean. The path almost skirted just below the lip of the crater wall before descending again, down towards a flat area they could see far below. It was covered in rough, dry grass, the first vegetation they'd seen on the island.

Wending around the folds and ridges of the crater wall, the party came to an obstacle - evidently a recent landslide had obliterated part of the path, and climbing seemed treacherous. Looking some hundred feet or so below they could see three broken forms, evidently tumbled down from roughly where they stood - and clustered around them a feeding flock of loathsome "fangbirds" - not proper birds as such, but that species of swoop-lizard notorious for their hooked teeth that sprout from heavy, outsize jaws.

Puku cast a survivor's eye over the loose rock and scree around them and judged that the safest climb was straight down and then continuing around the rocky shore, rejoining the path at the grassy area.

The team misliked the prospect of being set upon by fangbirds while hugging the cliff, so they resolved to kill or drive them off with missile attacks from above. Puku opened with a shot from his long-bow which skewered the largest, the "alpha fangbird" perhaps half again the size of the others and with the scaly skin of its skull stained blood-red.

Evidently the fangbirds were feeling gully and they flew up to attack, wheeling around outside of melee range then swooping in to snap at them with their big jaws. The alpha bit the end of Puku's arrow and worried it out from between its ribs - flying up to attack, almost lazily it flapped past the hapless deckhand Grallen and snapped his head up with a single bite! It flew off to enjoy this morsel, and the other fangbirds quickly scattered after two of their number were put to death, but not before injuring the hobbit Orna Goodgrace.

With the fangbirds gone and the shock of Grallen's sudden demise fresh in their minds, the party made their way down to the rocky shore. Though not an easy climb, by taking great care and making use of Der Schrecken's natural climbing skills, this was accomplished without incident.

They examined the bodies at the base of the cliff. Two humans corpses, partly eaten by the fangbirds. These seemed to be two more of the miners, and not more than a day dead as best as our heroes could tell.

The third was untouched by the scavengers, a green pinch-faced thing with spiny skin and cloven hooves for feet - yet another devil it seemed, though Kat wasn't sure what kind exactly. It was dead from a snapped neck and smelled like alchemist's acid.

What is going on on this island?!

Grallen's headless body and the other two dead humans were committed to the sea after a strange eulogy about circles was delivered by Orna. They were dandled in the waves for a while before one thrashed about like a rag doll and was pulled under by some unseen thing. The party decided to move on hastily.

They made their way a short distance around the rocky shore and then climbed up to the flat grassy space they had previously seen from above. They knew they could rejoin the path on the other side.

As they crossed, Puku spied something flying up above the crater, to the east - the shape vaguely humanoid but sprouting four large, bat-like wings. Remembering her planar studies, Kat thought the four wings characteristic of a Magaav, a devil most fell! The party exercised discretion and hid themselves as best they could in a fold in the land and the thing flew off to the south, apparently without noticing them.

([/i]NEW INFO - it later occurs to Kat that Magaavs are also known as 'host devils' as they are thought to swarm in great numbers - so, curious to see one alone, if that's indeed what it was[/i])

Our heroes were back on the trail and continued their way toward the miner's camp. Rounded the westernmost ridges of the island, they could see the cape they were headed for, covered in scrubby forest and open grassy areas - not good land by any stretch, but perhaps the best to be found in this place. The path continued its circuitous route up and down through the difficult terrain, avoiding the steepest slopes.

They reach a fairly, wide open rocky area near the shore, where the air was spiced with sea spray. As they progressed, they spied piles of clean-picked animal bones among the rocks, and discerned a subtle chorus of wet clicking, sucking noises that put them on their guard. And just as well, for a great host of hand-sized crabs boiled up from the rocks and crevasses around them, implacable in their hunger, remorseless in the cruel-plucking clutch of their hideous little claws!

The party was hard pressed by this enemy as no matter how many they crushed it seemed like picking sand from the desert one grain at a time. Fortunately, a series of super-potent (lucky) attack eventually broke up the swarm, but not before Kat and Puku had felt the grotesque tickle of a hundred crabby claws daintily pinching morsels of their still-living flesh into their whirring, sick little mouths.

A couple of sackloads of crabs had been cooked by Kat's magical lightning and Puku grabbed some up for later eating. The smell of cooked crab also attracted another fangbird which kept its distance until the party moved on. Looking back as the left the rocky shelf behind, they spied a tilted wooden sign, wedged between two rocks. It read:

WATCH OUT
CRABBS

The trail took them further from the crater wall to land where the soil was somewhat fertile, and there they had the brief enjoyment of shade as the passed beneath a patch of scrubby forest. Emerging from the twisted trees, they found themselves on the edge of a wide grassy clifftop area, which juts westward out into the sea, with the great wall of the crater behind to the east and looming hundreds of feet above.

A couple of hundred feet to the west, out in the open, the party can see a small circular bank of piled up dirt, a low wall of earthworks in effect. The top of a shanty-like wooden structure can be seen behind it.
A few dozen feet away from the circle, a man appears to be digging a grave. He has dark hair and is clad in armour of shining steel.


Gimme Perception checks before you do anything else


Orc Barbarian 3

Puku bugs amber eyes, wriggles ragged ear stumps and twitches his porcine nostrils at yon curiousities...

Giz a percieve! 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8


Dilettante Dervish 3
doggziller wrote:
Gimme Perception checks before you do anything else

Kat squints earnestly at the distant figure

Shining steel! A warrior! Is he hot?

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6


Okay rolling for Apparacio and Orna...

Apparico Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
Orna Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21


Puku:

Wow, you're pretty sure that's Sad Mel over there!

Kat:

Yeah, he might be hot...? Though you're a bit far away to tell for sure. Looks like a good build anyway.

The guy has not seen you - he is focused on the work of digging, back bent and arms to the shovel. However at the moment, if he happened to look toward the treeline he would probably spot you, unless you wish to take effort to conceal yourself.

If you approach him, it will be over open ground and concealment will not be an option.

"Hey, sssh, listen!" squawks Orna.
You strain your ears - at first all you notice is the faint rush of wind through the trees and the hum of insects - normal sounds that you're hearing really for the first time since arriving on the Isle - and the wash of the sea from the base of the nearby cliffs.

But then you pick out a low-pitched drone, like a much larger insect, in your mind's eye, something like a fly the size of a wolfhound, circling dozens of feet above your head.

But you look up and see only empty sky.

"It's the same noise, just like before!" Orna says.

The noise grows fainter and seems to be advancing ahead of you, in the general direction of the earthworks and the armoured man.


Orc Barbarian 3

Puku blinks in the sunlight and shades his eyes with his gnarly hand as he takes in the armoured fellow before him...

"Aw eh! That's Mel man! MEL!" Puku waves with his whole body like an ecstatic labrador, before racing off towards his long lost pal with arms and grin outstretched


Puku, you charge ahead. For a few moments you can barely discern the mysterious buzzing sound, wending through the air somewhere ahead and above you, before it is lost amidst the noise of your breath and the thump of your feet against the earth.

As you get nearer, you feel certain that the man you're charging towards is none other than Melthorpe Madrigell, or "Sad Mel" as he was known among the jacks. He startles at your approach and drops his spade.

At the same time, off to your right you see a figure clamber atop the round earthworks from the inside. A short, drably dressed human male, he draws his shortbow and takes aim at you!


Orc Barbarian 3
Quote:
At the same time, off to your right you see a figure clamber atop the round earthworks from the inside. A short, drably dressed human male, he draws his shortbow and takes aim at you!

Puku thunders to a stop, looking up at the the bowman, then over to Mel, then back to the bowman.

"Wooah fullas, we're you mates eh!" Pants the Barbarian, as he lifted his hands to breast height, palms out. "We're not the boogiemans, we's come to helps yous..."


Sad Mel drops his spade, even from a hundred yards away you can see his stunned expression.

"Hold! Hold!" he calls to the fellow with the bow.

That guy lowers his bow but keeps the arrow nocked.
"There's more o' them up yonder," warns the bowman, indicating the rest of the group still up by the treeline. "Caint see no horns 'pon they brow, leastways," he allows. His tones are coarse, and his accent rustic.

Sad Mel starts walking towards you then breaks into a jog.
You recognise his armor, the splendid breastplate with the Madrigell crest (a double-headed crane) masterfully wrought on its surface - but marred now with fresh dents, and spatters of gore.

His pale face is shiny with sweat and his jaw hangs slack in wonderment.
"Can it be...? My old comrade, Puku the Savage? Be you a spectre or a seeming, begone from my sight! But if true flesh before me... how come you here, at this, our direst hour?"

A third man emerges from behind the earthworks, and watches.


Orc Barbarian 3

Puku grins at Mels approach, "Thought you's might need a hand! " and he strides foward to address a mighty handshake with his old comrade.

"You's got some pretty massive troub's here eh mate," Bobbing his coarse eyebrows he gestures back towards the treeline, "But dont worry, I brought some mates."

With a wave, Puku beckons the others over from their hiding place...


They stand there like dummies.


Dilettante Dervish 3

Kat sidles out from cover and approaches the beckoning Puku. As she gets near she notices the double-headed crane, the dark hair the comely features.

"Melthorpe Madrigal?? Mel?"

She breaks into a run and basically leaps at the dude, wrapping her arms around his neck

"We've been looking everywhere for you! Eloise sent us!" she babbles "We gotta get back to Andersport! Leyland is in trouble!"

Disentangling herself from the startled youth she attempts to regain her composure

"So.... do you guys have a boat? Ours kind of got smashed by a giant lizard..."


Puku Savage wrote:

Puku grins at Mels approach, "Thought you's might need a hand! " and he strides foward to address a mighty handshake with his old comrade.

"You's got some pretty massive troub's here eh mate," Bobbing his coarse eyebrows he gestures back towards the treeline, "But dont worry, I brought some mates."

With a wave, Puku beckons the others over from their hiding place...

"Can it be?! Puku, our rough-hewn deliverance!" gasps Melthorpe, his voice cracking. He looks beat, but glimmers of hope animate his face. "Our saviour in serpentine! Messiah in malachite!"

Puku senses exhaustion quivering through Mel's muscles as their hands lock together in the famous "Lumberjack's Clasp".

He leans back and rests his other hand on the greenskin's mighty shoulder.

"You, friend, are ambrosia to my eyes, Desna's very honey decanted through the nozzle of my pupils as a balm to succour my scathed and bleeding soul! But how in all the world's wending ways come you to be here?"

The rough cove with the shortbow steps down from the embankment.

"Old friends is it..." he mutters, seemingly to himself, but audible to all,"'spose the tusker's another fukken poet, jus' what we need."

He looks Kat up and down as she approaches, meets her gaze and scowls.

Kat Crowley wrote:

Kat sidles out from cover and approaches the beckoning Puku. As she gets near she notices the double-headed crane, the dark hair the comely features.

"Melthorpe Madrigal?? Mel?"

She breaks into a run and basically leaps at the dude, wrapping her arms around his neck

"We've been looking everywhere for you! Eloise sent us!" she babbles "We gotta get back to Andersport! Leyland is in trouble!"

dice rolls...

The young lordling catches Kat by the waist and gently pivots to set her down on her feet on the other side of him.

His eyes bulge as she blurts data at him.
"Eloise? Leyland? How do you know my family? Who are you, dear maiden? Who is she, Puku?"

"More to the point," the grizzled marksman interjects, "does the slip have a boat?"

More less at the same moment, Kat asks:

Kat wrote:
"So.... do you guys have a boat? Ours kind of got smashed by a giant lizard..."

Melthorpe and the bowman exchange alarmed looks.

"A giant lizard?"
Melthorpe pinches his brow.

The bowman growls a reply through clenched teeth, yellow.
"There's the rowboat we use to get to the mine on calm days. But it ain't here, we left it moored when we... well, when we ran away. Was thinking about making a play for it though it's like as not a play for the grave... but you came that way from the mine, surely, did you see it?"

You did not, and he reads this in your face.
The leathery old reprobate slumps and presses the heel of his hand up against his left eye.
"Ah, Gorum strike me fukken blue..."

A third fellow emerges from behind the embankment, a young man, half a child yet, eyes wide, he has a harrowed look.

"Mercy of the Dawn!" he yaps excitedly, "Adlin, are they here to rescue us? We're saved!"

The bowman - Adlin, it seems - looks down and spits.
"Saved? Reckon these ones are just as fukked as us..."

BTW don't forget that you heard that buzzing noise as you approached - moments ago in game time, but obviously weeks ago in the real world, hence the reminder.

Also - since Der Schrecken has declared no action, for now I'm assuming he has elected to hang back, hiding in the treeline, to observe. Because who knows what kind of reaction his appearance might provoke from these embattled men? Orna, however, has toddled along several paces behind Kat.


Orc Barbarian 3

Using a chipped brown fingernail, Puku picked a gooey blob of black slime from his teeth and flicked it casually at the ground.

"That's Kat, her mob owns that old pub back in Woodenhead, the Twisted Tiki..." Spake the green fellow. "She's got a sword what she reckons can speak to her, it looks pretty flash but..." Puku shrugged his broad shoulders.

"This here's Orna, she's wise as." The Barbarian takes a knee to put a forearm around Orna's shoulders.

From his position on the ground Puku seems to pause a moment before continuing "We got another dude too, he's back a ways." He pointed with his thumb back over his shoulder. "Yeah, Apeachy-o, he can turn into a taniwha...he's a good cvnt though."

Standing once more he smiled a lopsided smile. "We also looking for a few of our mates....one's a real small little smart arse, the other's a big fruity green fella....neither one of them can hold a drink!"

"Your mates right though Mel..." He put his big hands on either of Mel's shoulders "We pobly are just as fvcked as n'youse eh! Puhuhuhuhu! Least we's fvcked together eh!"

Puku takes a moment to swat a imaginary fly away from his face...in that moment his eyes widen...

Roll for Wisdom! 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12


Orc Barbarian 3
Puku wrote:

Puku takes a moment to swat a imaginary fly away from his face...in that moment his eyes widen...

Roll for Wisdom! 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12

Puku suddenly snaps into a warriors stance and from his back pulls his longbow. In a flash he has notched a yellow flighted arrow to the string...he pauses as his keen senses try to detect the strange buzzing...

He whispers to his kin "That's that buzzing, that means big bad trouble...Mel get your sh1t together!"

Oh great DM in the cosmos, please roll for this humble verdant hero, a test of PERCEPTION = 7!


To be specific, Puku wants to try and shoot the fly harbinger, (if its not just a noise) if he can pinpoint/anticipate its whereabouts...


Or follow the dang noise to see where the bast@rd goes...


"Buzzing?!"
The younger miner's voice cracks in panic.

"Shhhhh...!" hushes Adlin urgently, raising a hand and tilting his head to one side.

You hear it faintly, seemingly circling quite high above the group.

Melthorpe hunches and draws his broadsword a hand's breadth from its sheath.

dice roll...

Puku's nostrils flare as he draws back the bowstring, sighting along the shaft at the clear blue sky above, trying to pinpoint the noise as it zags and loops around.

He looses!
The arrow describes a beautiful parabola, in accordance with physical laws - hitting nothing, it thunks into the earth a few dozen yards away.
However, you hear the buzzing noise recede to the east.

"Sh!t...!" cusses Adlin, "we should move, we should get out of here. Last time we heard that noise was about an hour afore the melty-men fell upon us at the mine. I not seen such a bloody slaughter in twelve-year or more..."

"Indeed," intones Melthorpe, and gestures towards the grave he was digging, "but first, let us bury our fallen comrade, Chorster, with the honour he deserves..."

"Nah, nah, we gotta go, we gotta go now!" says the young feller, panicked.

Actions/reactions please...


Does the grave look dug? Does it seem to be just a matter of lob in the stiff and cover it up by pushing in the heap of dirt? How long would it take to bury this dude if Puku(and maybe Der Shrecken) hekped Mel? Maybe while the others gathered suppplies for an immediate evac?


Zanzibari wrote:
Does the grave look dug? Does it seem to be just a matter of lob in the stiff and cover it up by pushing in the heap of dirt? How long would it take to bury this dude if Puku(and maybe Der Shrecken) hekped Mel? Maybe while the others gathered suppplies for an immediate evac?

It's a few dozen feet off, but you can see that the pile of excavated dirt isn't all that big.

"It's about half dug," Sad Mel tells you, "but worse, I've completely confounded on the matter of the eulogy. No idea what rhyme scheme would be appropriate..."
There are tears in his eyes as he tells you this.

Adlin scowls and glares at Melthorpe, then turns his regard to the younger miner.

"Rickas! Keep hold of your nuts, boy. Bring down a couple of the tents and bundle supplies in the canvas, get going!"

Rickas scurries back over the bank.

"We're low on supplies, but with most of our crew dead there's a bit more to go around. Problem's gonna be where to go..."

He addresses Kat.
"Do you people have any kind of a plan?"


Orc Barbarian 3

Puku wastes no time and takes up the the shovel to dig deeper the grave,. Though ignorant to much of the religions of the civilized world, he holds the sanctity of death and fallen comrades with most pious regard.

"You suss out your words and I'll fix you a hole whats deep enough for your bro." He said to Mel as he jumped into the pit.


Puku Savage wrote:

Puku wastes no time and takes up the the shovel to dig deeper the grave,. Though ignorant to much of the religions of the civilized world, he holds the sanctity of death and fallen comrades with most pious regard.

"You suss out your words and I'll fix you a hole whats deep enough for your bro." He said to Mel as he jumped into the pit.

You can help but notice the human corpse lying next to the half-dug grave.

The man called Chorster - another of the miners.

GM roll for Heal check...

Glancing at the body, Puku notes that the wounds are quite different from those of the other men killed at the sulphur mill - no lacerations, but from bruising and the crumpled line of his throat, you'd mark that this man's windpipe was crushed by a blunt force.

(Puku once saw a man die after taking a chair leg to the throat in a bar brawl - or insert your own explanation if you prefer).

You grab up the spade and set to.
Gimme a Strength check...

Now waiting on KAT to reply to Adlin, and DER SCHRECKEN to declare some kind of action...


Orc Barbarian 3
Quote:
You grab up the spade and set to.

ROLL FOR STRONGS! 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

GM wrote:
Glancing at the body, Puku notes that the wounds are quite different from those of the other men killed at the sulphur mill - no lacerations, but from bruising and the crumpled line of his throat, you'd mark that this man's windpipe was crushed by a blunt force.

"Far out Mel, what befell this fulla? Looks like his necks got the mean bash!" Observed the barbarian as he toiled at the grave...


Dilettante Dervish 3
doggziller wrote:

He addresses Kat.

"Do you people have any kind of a plan?"

Kat hesitates for a moment "Uh...weeeeell our ORIGINAL plan was to find Mel and escort him to his sister in Murchmanor. We found Mel so I guess our plan is to get off this island..."

Kat is momentarily distracted by Puku's frantic grave digging efforts

"...and not ending up dead like your pal there. What happened here anyway?"

The man opens his mouth to answer but Kat interrupts

"Hey our friends from the Skippebble had a boat! They were bringing it here to deliver your supplies, have you seen them?"


Melthorpe interrupts Kat.

"Hold a moment milady, you mentioned you know my sister, and our faithful servant, Leyland? And Leyland in some sort of trouble? Speak of this, please, I'm bewildered?"

You tell him whatever you tell him and then after {REACTION TBD} he moves over to the grave to interact with Puku

Kat wrote:


The man opens his mouth to answer but Kat interrupts

"Hey our friends from the Skippebble had a boat! They were bringing it here to deliver your supplies, have you seen them?"

"So, it were the Skippebble ye came on," Adlin confirms glumly, "I's fool enough to hope otherwise, though there's little else makes landfall here other than wracks and black-boats..."

He shoots a glance over to Mel.
"Listen, do ye know young Mel, have ye some sway with him? I tell ye, I had no notion he were high-born, I swear it. It makes me sick to think some of what me and the boys said to him when we thought... well it don't matter what we thought. But if you've any clout with the young master, please, you gotta talk some sense to him, we gotta get moving quickly, first we gotta get outta this camp, before that buzzing brings all Fourteen Hells right down on us... and then we gotta get off this damn island, even if it mean swimmin'! Never mind a burial - Chorster can come back as a ghost and spook the melty-men for all I cares."

"Worse," he adds, "I think the young lord's of a mind to go looking for Marven, who were grabbed up last night... no doubt by now he'll be dead like the rest..."


Puku Savage wrote:


"Far out Mel, what befell this fulla? Looks like his necks got the mean bash!" Observed the barbarian as he toiled at the grave...

Melthorpe comes over after he finishes interacting with Kat. Puku has already started digging in the interim.

"He was killed while on watch last night, by... well, it was dark, but I think it was dwarves, if you can credit it! As if being set upon by devils were not miserable enough! Three or four of them crept upon us during the night, they killed Chorster and kidnapped another of our company, Marven. I woke and tried to take after them, but - curse it! - in the black of night, they moved so surely with their underground eyes and they got away clean..."

"Ah, Marven! Do you know he is an artist? He draws horses. No formal training of course. But he's a wondrous talent. Now that you're here, stout Puku, I'm sure that if he's alive, we'll save him! And some day, why, Marven's horses shall run free, their lovely manes flowing and bright haunches gleaming as they frolic through the parlors of the fine and mighty! Hanging on the walls, as, as paintings, I mean." he appends for Puku's benefit.

"Well, so I hope..." he adds forlornly.


Orc Barbarian 3

*DIG!* *DIG!* *DIG!*


Apparicio had hung back in the tree-line, as the others had intimated. Noting the hostility of the archer, and pondering his own monstrous appearance, he opted to dismiss Der Schrecken. After all, none of these hicks had taken at all kindly to that noble beast. Without that monstrous presence, he collapsed. The night’s poor sleep had caught up with him once more, and perhaps there was some brief residue from the various poisonings Der Schrecken had experienced?

He staggers down to where Puku and makes some wan greetings. “Good afternoon, my good fellows, and well met,” he offers hand-shakes to Adlin and Melthorpe as he continues, ”I am Apparicio, and I apologise for my delay in arriving. I am not at my best, and the travails of our journey briefly proved too much for me.”


Orc Barbarian 3

*DIG!* *DIG!* *DIG!*


I'm waiting on Kat ATM...

You know my computer crashed halfway through making a map last night? So upsetting...


Dilettante Dervish 3
doggziller wrote:

Melthorpe interrupts Kat.

"Hold a moment milady, you mentioned you know my sister, and our faithful servant, Leyland? And Leyland in some sort of trouble? Speak of this, please, I'm bewildered?"

You tell him whatever you tell him and then after {REACTION TBD} he moves over to the grave to interact with Puku

"Yes, Eloise and I are old friends from finishing school, in fact I was her tutor for a while. She's a lovely girl but she never quite mastered her hexes..."

She bites her nails thoughtfully for a moment

"I hadn't seen Eloise in years when she turned up in Woodenhead looking for some adventurer's to track down her wayward brother. Naturally I leaped at the chance to provide a service to my dear old friend and Crowley's Companions took up the contract.

She punctuates the point by drawing the silver "C" sigil of her house in the air before her in silver strands of magical energy

We fought our ways through hordes of bandits, demons and witches on your trail, saving your sister from deadly peril on a number of occasions. But the bonds of sisterly love are strong and undaunted by adversity we pressed on to that wretched hive of vice Andersport with all haste!

She paces back in forth, pouding her fist into her hand with each exclaimation

"Alas Andersport did not provide us with a warm welcome. No sooner had we stepped through the town gates when we were accosted by Paladin fanatics accusing us of consorting with devils! Under the most extreme questioning your dear retainer Leyland cracked and admitted to some minor indiscretion in his past - something minor that happened under the Chelaxians. Alas, this was enough to raise the suspicions of their inquisitor, an unjust brute of a fellow, and Lelyland has been taken into custody! They've taken him to Murchmanor to face justice - what manner of justice I know not...

Wiping a tear from her eye she turns to Melthorpe and jabs at him with a finger

"Your brave sister could not countenance abandoning her beloved retainer to his fate and determined to accompany him to his trial to ensure his fair reinstatement. Her heart was torn at the thought of abandoning her quest for her beloved brother but, such is the trust between us that she trusted me with this noble mission.

She turns away and stares out to sea...

"Alas, fate has not been kind to us. The vessel that was to return us to the mainland has been wrecked and we seem beset by devils on all sides! Our very survival hangs in the balance!"

Spinning on her heel she grabs Melthorpe by his shoulders and shakes him

"Melthorpe Madrigal, on your family's honor we must return to the mainland at once and come to the aid of your sister and your beloved Leyland! My sword and those of my companions are at your service in this most noble endevour!"

Striking a suitably dramatic pose and awaits Mels reaction

doggziller wrote:
He shoots a glance over to Mel."Listen, do ye know young Mel, have ye some sway with him?

I guess that will depend on Mel's reaction, yeah?


Human Curmudgeon 35

some seriously f*@&ed up grammar and spelling in there - blame low blood sugar


Kat Crowley wrote:

"Melthorpe Madrigal, on your family's honor we must return to the mainland at once and come to the aid of your sister and your beloved Leyland! My sword and those of my companions are at your service in this most noble endevour!"

Striking a suitably dramatic pose and awaits Mels reaction.

Secret GM diplomacy roll!

The young nobleman's dewy, limpid eyes shimmer as you tell your tale. More than once, you are almost stricken dumb by the wistful look on his fine-featured face, but you power through it.

Your rousing finish, however, sends his gaze sliding forlornly to the ground.

"Ah, 'my family's honour'..." he says bitterly. "Do you think I *chose* to be a Madrigell? A scion of a dusty dynasty, still clinging pathetically to our venal privileges, hiding from the light of Andoren's freedom dawn? No more than butchers of the borderlands, my family - cynically allowed the fool's grace of a title for fear that red priests of Cheliax would have our loyalty elsewise."

He meets your gaze again.

"I do not consider my family's honour. But Leyland was more a father to me than... the Baron. And my sister... how we left things, I never dreamed she'd come looking for me. You have given me much to think on. But let me now bury my comrade."

Oh, how his sorrowful tones pluck at your feminine soul!

Apparicio is approaching at this point and says:

Quote:
“Good afternoon, my good fellows, and well met,” he offers hand-shakes to Adlin and Melthorpe as he continues, ”I am Apparicio, and I apologise for my delay in arriving. I am not at my best, and the travails of our journey briefly proved too much for me.”

"Well met." says Melthorpe sadly, lingering not at all and heading over to the grave (where Puku is burrowing like a ankheg!)


Quote:
“Good afternoon, my good fellows, and well met,” he offers hand-shakes to Adlin and Melthorpe as he continues, ”I am Apparicio, and I apologise for my delay in arriving. I am not at my best, and the travails of our journey briefly proved too much for me.”

Adlin nods at you.

"Travails, is it? Aye, we've have those and more! Well, you seem an unusually fine flock of folks, are ye not so. I wonder, what know ye of danger, and of death? For I've had more than a lifetime's worth and seems like more yet to come - my bones mislike that buzzin', heard it yesterday and most our crew was dead within the hour. You see the lightning, you know the thunder ain't far behind. I'm gonna help the boy grab up a few things and then the two of us are heading for the cover of scrub, regardless o' who else is along."

He turns and starts walking up the earthen bank that surround the miner's camp as a windbreak and rudimentary fortification.


Oh yeah, Adlin took your offered handshake, Apparicio, Melthorpe did not - he sullenly wandered away before you could proffer the hand. Adlin's palm felt like fossilized beef jerky.


Play Report 23/7/14

While Puku finished the grave, Melthorpe relayed the tale of how he and the others had escaped pursuit from the devils who attacked them at the sulphur mill by bringing a landslide down across the path, seemingly through an act of reckless heroics on his part. For the benefit of Kat & Apparicio, he explained again the fate of the slain Chorster (murdered by dwarven kidnappers!) and his friend Marven (kidnapped by dwarven murderers!) the night prior. Meanwhile Orna planted her greenwood staff in the ground and watered it.

Puku finished digging and the party respectfully participated in the burial of Chorster, though privately Apparicio hoped that Melthorpe's rhyming eulogy was not the best he had to offer. Puku knelt solemnly and commended also the crew of the Skippebble into the care of Those Beyond.

Adlin and Rickas were too antsy for such niceties and were busy collapsing a couple of tents and repurposing the canvas as large, ungainly swag bags to drag away supplies from the camp. At the conclusion of the funeral, they were already halfway to the tree-line, each awkwardly hauling an out-size bundle behind him.

The party was moving to catch up with them when a purple imp flew out from above the scrub forest, and flew towards them! Puku put an arrow in the thing, while Apparicio summoned a brave little Air Elemental which took immediate issue with the winged devil and administered a robust uppercut to the chin. Brandishing his longsword, Melthorpe Madrigell cut a most heroic figure, and he free-styled a few lines of verse which lifted everyone's spirits and resolve.

Now, Apparicio and Kat were both sufficiently educated enough to know that imps characteristically have RED skin, hence this one was an oddity - but only Kat had seen anything like a purple imp before...

SEPIA-TONE FLASHBACK!

...for at her finishing school in Almas, study break had been greatly enlivened when a swarm of tiny purple implings had burst from the belly of the illicit imp familiar of her classmate Bethany Wyrmire! Narsus had been the name of the wretched thing, and it had gloated cryptically before expiring from the trauma of its blasphemous natality. In the days following, every ratcatcher in the city had been paid a triple bounty for purple tails, but it was always suspected that some few of the critters had escaped to elsewhere. Could this be one of the Spawn of Narsus, grown now to adult stature?

CRASH-CUT TO REALITY!

"Hey, dummy! Your old man Narsus was a bumble-butt!" Katerina hollered at the purple imp as it approached, hoping to confirm her theory.

"What know you of Narsus, b!tch?" the imp said crossly, veering over to hover above her head, and up-ending a sack from which tumbled two flaming orange-scaled snakes! Fleet-footed Kat sprang back and they dropped to the ground where moments before she had stood. One slithered over forthwith and gave her a painful burning bite on the calf, leaving a sinuous line of scorched earth behind it.

Peppered with arrows and punches from Appariocio's weather-wyrd, the imp was getting flustered and it cried out in the Infernal tongue. Six melty-men broke from the tree-line! Rickas & Adlin fell back to join the rest of the party, abandoning their supplies.

Kat & Melthorpe wasted no time in snipping the heads from the fiery asps at their feet, then turned to face this new threat from the clumsy yet resilient hell-fatties. (Thok-Murel praised the spicy tang of the reptile's effluvia).

"'Ware the leader!" cried Adlin, "if the leader comes, we flee!"
Sad Mel, though plainly no coward, immediately endorsed this plan.

The imp finally went down beneath the combined onslaught of the heroes as the melty-men made their lumbering charge from the tree-line. Puku scooped up the empty sack it had carried, noting that it was made from an unusual leather, its colour the deep dark red of air-starved blood.

The melty-men were spreading out to encircle the party in their approach and at this, the callow Rickas broke and ran for the trees to the east.

It seems he had the right idea for not long after our heroes engaged the leading foes, a horrifying figure stalked out from the scrub, a fearsome bearded devil, wielding a wicked glaive and clad only in a purple sash, its loathsome pronged genitalia wafting about as it strode forth. It bellowed commands in Infernal at its underlings as it advanced.

(Somewhere in the back of her mind Kat wondered why the fiend did not teleport, as such is known to be within the power of a barbazu, but, why second-guess good fortune?)

The banquet of battle was almost done, but the party had no appetite for dessert and beat a retreat for the questionable safety of the trees, hot on the heels of Rickas. Luckily, the plucky little weather-wyrd threw itself at the bearded devil, buying them precious seconds. They were pursued into the scrub by the melty-men but Apparicio craftily delayed the pursuers by summoning a Holy Beast-Ant at a natural chokepoint, then sealed the escape by Greasing an embankment after our heroes had scrambled up it.

The party moved more stealthily now, circling back to the north, behind where the baddies had emerged from. Adlin lead them to a hole in the rock, about the width of a gnoll's shoulders. A knotted rope is tied to the trunk of a gnarly tea-tree nearby, and drops down into the hole.

"This here's the way down to the storm cave..." hisses Adlin, his face grubby with dirt and gleaming with sweat, but his sh!t, seemingly, together. "Wit' Gorum's bloody grace, could be safe to hole up here for a while..."

He offers the knotted rope...

Just to remind myself, Kat copped some Strength damage due to a critical failure first time she tried to stab a snake


Orc Barbarian 3

Puku waits for the others to descend before following after, making a PERCEPTION 7 test to see if he can hear/smell/see signs of pursuit

"You fulla's get down that hole quick as!" Whispered the great green brute. "I'll be down in a bit..."

How deep is the hole? If Puku were to remove the rope and use his climbing kit to clamber down, is it possible he could cover the hole with brush,twigs,etc so that errant bogeys could conceivably fall in?


Dilettante Dervish 3

Kat carefully lowers herself into the hole, suppressing a shudder of fear at the thought of falling. Wincing at the pain in her strained ass she climbs down the knotted rope.

Climb: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19

Presuming that's good enough to get to the bottom

She casts Dancing Lights and checks out her surroundings


Kat grabs the rope from Adlin and descends. The hole is the opening of a natural rock chimney which drops eight or nine feet before belling out into a larger cavern below. It's rather like climbing into a giant alchemical flask. The first part of the climb is easy as you can brace your feet against the sides. After it opens out it gets harder as you're just clinging to the rope - you're thankful to whoever set it up for tying thick knots in the rope every two feet or so.

It's about fifteen feet down from the chimney to the floor of the cavern, the scuffing of your bootsoles rings in the hard empty space as you drop to the ground.

As your eyes adjust you make out dim daylight from the chimney above and also the the west, where you see faint light glistening on water. You can hear a hollow boom of waves breaking from that direction, the sound funneling down the cavern towards you. The air is damp and you can faintly smell rotting seaweed.

"Disco Instanciar!" you intone in words of lavender, and faerie lights waft around you. By the rainbow lights you can see you're in a fairly spacious grotto. Rocks, large and small, are jumbled everywhere but a space of about 15' diameter has been cleared directly beneath the chimney and the floor is solid rock. Some dusty trash is lying around. Just next to you are the remains of an old campfire.

The opening of the chimney is the peak of the roof of the grotto - further away it slopes down and you can see marks made in charcoal on the rock.

To the south-west the rock floor drops some ten or twelve feet down to a still tidepool. Just to the right of that - due west - a tumble of rocks creates an easier slope leading down to a natural corridor with a floor of wet sand, which you surmise runs out to the sea.

To the north the arch of the ceiling meets the floor only ten foot from the campfire. To the south and east, the roof is low and the rocks are piled high, it looks like you could move around among those rocks beneath the low ceiling (with difficulty) but you can't see if it goes anywhere.


Puku:
You can hear the big devil shouting something in his devil tongue to the south. But you can't hear any sounds of movement in the scrub nearby.


Orc Barbarian 3

DM:
Puku decides that the longer he tarries outside, the higher his chance of being spotted by those unsavoury beasties. Is there by any chance some brush or sticks nearby he can conceal the hole/rope with as he descends? Also he would like to attempt to mask their trail in the immediate vicinity if he reckons its safe. SURVIVAL=7


Puku:
You rolled a natural 20 on that Survival check my manz, so have a think about the splendid way you could achieve your aim and tomorrow night we'll say that we'll say that happened!


Play Report 1/8/14

The rest of the party clambered down into the cave. Puku went down last, pulling an uprooted shrub into the hole behind him in a small stroke of woodcrafty genius.

Adlin explained that the cave is sometimes used by the miners to shelter from storms, since the camp itself is exposed and relatively fragile. In times past they used it more frequently, however since so many Grinne-dyloch are around these days, in recent years they've been cautious about staying near the water.

Urged on by others in the party, Orna explored the back end of the cave (east) where the roof become low and rocks are jumbled everywhere. She found that it keeps on going further into the interior of the island, but gets increasingly difficult to squeeze through, even for a hobbit.

Sad Mel was antsy and eager to search for his kidnapped comrade, Marven - a beautiful charcoal rendition of a plump-haunched pony on the cave walls only seemed to spur the desire to save his friend - but the others convinced him to have patience while they rested and waited for the barbazu and its forces to (hopefully) go elsewhere.

Rickas was worried about his mother back in Andersport.

The group dined on lightning-toasted crabs and settled down to rest as best they could on the dank, hard rock. An order of watch was agreed and the party resolved to move out at the next low tide, which they guessed would be an hour or two before dawn (though they had not yet resolved where they would head).

Apparicio took second watch in the form of Der Schrecken. Some time in the early evening, not too long after the high tide, the party was attacked from the sea-ward side by three lacedons, AKA sea-ghouls or sometimes "drowners". The creatures had kelp ropes looped around their necks which led back into the tidepool, where, it transpired, a wicked Grinne-dyloch priest was lurking.

And more peril yet! Even as the heroes engaged the lacedons, more Grinne-dyloch launched a surprise attack - these were a sneaky breed that could change the colour of their skin to blend in with their surroundings, melting away before the heroes' eyes as they squirmed among the rocks. These creatures seemed to be trying to poison our heroes by some means, however they had little success.

Despite sustaining wounds and the paralysis of both Puku & Der Schrecken, the party prevailed and the Grinne-dyloch were once again defeated. The drowners were destroyed, three of the chameleonic squidlings lay dead and the priest fled out to sea.

Another of the sneaky Grinne-dyloch revealed itself before fleeing, throwing a small, weatherbeaten tricorne hat to the ground and hissing a challenge in ill-accented Common: "We have your friends, meat! Come get them!"
Pulse of gray then surged across its skin as it withdrew among the rocks at the back of the cave, and the heroes lost sight of it.

The party recognised the sad little hat as belonging to Parsonpot Saltpepper, Captain of the Skippebble.


The rest of the night will be uneventful, Orna will level up! And she will have Lesser Restoration prepared in the morning.

If you want to discuss the party's next move in character, feel free to retcon it to occurring before you slept since that is probably the natural point at which such discussion would have occurred. Or do what you want.

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