Quest #6 "Return To The River"

[Monsieur Rose]

Bonnie

After removing and pocketing a fishing net, Bonnie walks into the large hut in time to hear much of the Q&A period. "Well, crap. I don't suppose they know other languages? Do you have any idea where they plan on going?"

She looks around at the gathered materials, then turns back to the group. "Maybe we escort them to the town? If we can get to the beach before dark, I like our chances. We could grab a translator so we don't rush into an ambush."

[Hotgoblin]

Franny

Hey there, Kelif...Me thinks we should head out to the shelter soon...do yous think the males of this tribe are the captives these females are referring to? She looks at the women, trying to comfort them as best she can...We'll find them!!

[Scott308]

Brufrig Granitesunder

If we are going to press on, we should get going or it'll start getting dark. On the other hand, if we decide to head back, we should also get going soon. We've come this far, I'm fine with getting to the shelter and heading to the next village in the morning.

[Spearmint]

Miss Tal

"These poor ladies don't need a wizard to talk to, just a sympathetic person who will listen and understand. Women are the same wherever", Krystal says to the chastity avowing cleric knowing he wouldn't understand women talk anyway. Putting away her sword, she will sit with the ladies and discuss such important matters as tribal henna and the seasoning of fish and get around to the story of the village attack and lacedons.

Krystal can use a Comprehend Languages spell, so she casts this.

[Bluetongue]

Ferris

The little gnome shrugs and goes off with folk to the communal hut up the trail, juggling a few river smooth pebbles and checking his study notes of Illusory arts. He is the same size as some of the children so will try to befriend them and at the same time study some of their cultural ways (greeting each other by nose rubbing, bowing, ways of dress). Do any of the women and children have bone noses or is that the preserve of warrior or chiefs?

[OGRE MAGE]

Franny wonders if the males of this group have all been captured. She does what she can to provide comfort, despite their current language barrier. The natives stare at Franny and Ferris with great interest, is it possible that they have never seen demi-humans before? Ferris entertains the little ones with some juggling while the others continue their talks. He studies these new strangers carefully, hoping to understand them a little better. The gnome doesn't notice any other facial decorations on the women or children, indicating that Bonenose could indeed have been someone of significance in the tribe.

Keilif shakes his head at the notion of taking these people back to Beachtown, but offers no argument about it.

Bonnie procures one of the finely crafted thinner rope fishing nets and stuffs it into her pack. Everyone except her agrees that the group should follow the priest and push on to the next village today. While those outside the communal hut prepare to head out once again, Krystal sits with the tribal women and begins casting a spell of all things. She reaches out and touches the arm of the woman that was talking to Keilif and gets quite the earful in the process.

The woman continues yelling at Keilif and speaking with the other women around her, when Krystal suddenly begins to understand her (and only her) words."Gone! They are all gone now! A few eventually escaped their shackles and ran off, but they were hunted down and captured again. Who will hunt for food and keep us safe from all the predators now? How are we supposed to survive without our men? Something must be done about these terrible bastards that are enslaving our people. We need our men back!!!"

Keilif is surprised to see Krystal actually trying to help. He seems content to shut up and listen for a while, only hoping that she will be honest in her translations.

Actions?

Ferris 3/7 DM, RM, 1/1 first
Waesfaren Rhey 10/10 3/4 first
Bonnie 6/6
Krystal 5/5 CL DM RM 1/1 first
Franny Buurlslammer 12/12
Brufrig Granitesunder 3/15
Keilif 9/9 1/3 first

[Spearmint]

Krystal

She will ask about the predators who captured the men and where they might have been taken. Choosing only men seems to signal need for manual labour, digging in a mine."We could help search and rescue those missing, but in the mean time to stop you going hungry and defenceless." she says and then Krystal also asks about the hunting needs,"I know of a few strong backed men, loggers from the Beachtown settlement. They are in desperate need of work. (and women..?), , do you have means to hire them to bring your harvest in and hunt meat for you?"

[OGRE MAGE]

The native woman just looks at Krystal with a blank expression, as if she doesn't understand what she is saying. Because she doesn't.

She looks at the other women and exclaims. "Do you understand this strange person? It seems like she is trying to speak to us, but I don't understand her. They seem willing to help us, not like the last paleskins that came here. How do we know that they aren't all in league with the herb pirates, though? They all look the same to me. We must be careful with all these new strangers running around. We don't know if they can be trusted or not. They might be here to take us away too."

Again, only Krystal can understand the woman's words. The others all hear a strange garble of clicks and grunting. This is not a language that you have ever heard before.

Please check the spell description for Comprehend Languages.

[Spearmint]

Krystal

Clearly her questions are just garble and so remain unanswered but she will let Keiliff know that the women are friendly at least and share some of the concerns that the men folk have been captured and a mention of pirates who raided the village resources. She will try to at least make herself understood in simple terms, using the basic introductions that Keiliff spoke of on the journey across the beach, words for hello, I am Miss Tal', thirsty? hungry? danger?

when the spell ends she will off the conclusions to the group. Herb pirates makes me think they are growing harmless 'weed' and wacky baccy', any of the group (Ferris or Franny?) smoke piped tobacco and want to sign about leafs?

[OGRE MAGE]

Once Krystal realizes that her basic magic wont allow viable conversation like she had hoped, she begins to use pantomime, also asking Keilif to add in the few words that he already knows. This action convinces the natives that the small group is indeed trying to help them. She is able to glean a bit more information from the native woman before her magic spell wanes.

"Yes, now I believe they really are willing to help us. I have seen the man in the blue robes carrying the pretty metal hunting stick before. He has been to our villages as well. I don't think he is in league with the herb pirates. He was taught some of our words, but not enough to communicate. Why would he care to learn about us if he only wanted to harm us?"

"They must continue on to the north and get to the herb fields to free our people. We wont survive out here long unless we can reunite all of the villages. We will stick to our plans and go to the caves once the sun drops below the trees. It is safe there, for now. We must survive until the pirates can be taken out and our men can be freed. My only hope is that this small group can take them all down. They are severely outnumbered, but have the advantage of the pirates not knowing about them. I only hope that will be enough."

Once the spell has run its course, and Krystal translates what she heard to the others, Wes speaks to the group.

"After seeing the rope crafting skills that these people possess, I believe they might be growing more than just fruits and vegetables in these fields they spoke of. I know of a highly fibrous plant that can be used to make ropes and nets like the ones we've seen here. It is more commonly known as hemp on the mainland and can be used for many things other than just twisting it into line. If these people have been growing new and different strains of such a plant, I can see why someone with greed in their hearts might be interested in taking over their operations. Like Keilif, I am now also convinced that we must do everything we can to right this wrong forced onto these good people. Who knows what we might learn from the inhabitants of this island if we can only win over their favor by showing them that we are trusting and willing to help them?"

"Let us leave these poor women and children to their task and move along to the pavilion that Keilif spoke of. After a good nights rest, we can head even further north and track down these herb pirates. Once we find out the size and complexity of their operations, we can assess how we want to go about trying to help them. Shall we all move along then?"

With that, the cleric and druid gather their gear, about to move on once everyone is ready.

I will move this along shortly if there is nothing else you want to do or say here.

[Spearmint]

Krystal

She says a good bye to the women and children, follows Wes and Keiliff to the communal hut. "Communal hut, hope a separate room for us ladies Bonnie, at least some curtains form prying eyes!".

[Monsieur Rose]

Bonnie

Bonnie looks at Krystal with a bit of surprise. "It almost seemed like you cared about those villagers. I knew you had a bit of a heart!" She winks and continues. "Now I'm interested in these pirates. Maybe there'll be something valuable on this place, after all."
She gathers her gear and gets ready to follow Keilif up the trail. "Don't worry Krystal, I get the feeling that our gentlemen travelers can keep their eyes where they belong...on my good side."

[Hotgoblin]

Franny wonders how many native men they'll find alive, if any and hopes the native women's journey to the cave goes as planned. She rubs bug salve on her unprotected skin and covers her head as they travel to the pavilion.

[Bluetongue]

Ferris

Doubles times his quick steps to keep up with the long-striders as they move further into the jungle. He has his pickbow loaded and smokes a bit of his tobacco on a carved pipe. "Herb pirates you say? Their names are not Basil and Rosemary are they? Making a mint from stealing. Ha, Ha you didn't see that cumin! Still if you want some sage advice I say, if we have enough thyme we can beet the lot of them. Lettuce go at once or we might be sorrel."

[Monsieur Rose]

Bonnie

Bonnie sees what Ferris did there.

She tries to ignore the antics of the gnome. We are, after all, on a serious mission. But she is unable to suppress a grin.

[Scott308]

Brufrig Granitesunder

As they walk, Brufrig gets a rundown on the conversation held inside the hut. Hearing Ferris, the dwarf groans, whispering to the gnome, Don't make me shoot you. Even Keilif would feel I was justified at that point. He grins as he teases his friend, to show he wasn't (completely) serious.

[OGRE MAGE]

Middle Of The Trail
Early Evening, Alongside the River
Slightly Cooler and Less Humid
Still Buggy

Seeing the group readying to depart, the native women quickly put together a combination of their jungle greens and roots, tropical fruits, and some smoked fish into a small basket, handing it to the priest, who of course refuses to accept it. "We have our rations, you will need this food more than us."

With that, the group departs, cautiously treading north again, following the trail cut alongside the roaring Dutty river. Franny shakes her head as she listens to the pair of elven women make idle chit-chat, clearly either forgetting, or not in the least concerned, that the 2 of them are not the only females present in the group. The afternoon rolls along while they travel for an hour or so with no distractions. They pass through yet another small group of empty huts along the way and spot one more of the broken and unusable bamboo skiffs in the water. Since the whole place seems completely deserted, the group moves along.

Keilif finally starts to recognize the groups evening destination up ahead just as the sun starts to drop below the trees, now shedding even less light on the already dark and foreboding trail. Rounding a bend in the river, the group travels upon a huge clearing alongside the trail that contains only one large building dominating the area. This clearing is void of the usual trees scattered all around and hosts only this large centrally located pavilion style bamboo and thatch edifice.

The clearing looks empty so the group moves in closer. The giant structure is void of life other than the usual insects that live everywhere throughout the jungle. With a little clearing of many nasty spider webs, the place actually cleans up rather nicely. The roof is thatch and the walls are all open to the air, but there are many rolled up reed mats that are strung up along the entire top of the building. The mats can be unfurled to create makeshift walls that will keep the swarming insects outside. That should make sleeping and eating inside here much easier. There is even a central cooking hearth with a chimney and some bamboo dividers that can be used to wall off 4 separate private rooms if necessary.

Keilif speaks once the group gets settled in for the night.
"This place is known to be centrally located among the many villages. That means we must be about half way to the fields that the natives use to grow their crops. This is a place of glad times and prosperity. I have been here once before, about a month ago. There was a large gathering of natives held here to celebrate a good year and a good harvest........... If we aren't able to help these people, this place might as well not exist."

Once camp is made, the priest walks around the clearing alone for a while. He appears to be in deep thought, as if he is dealing with much inner turmoil.

Actions?

If there is any specific watch order you would like to set, please do so. Otherwise I will roll for the order randomly and see if anything fun happens here before morning.

Ferris 3/7 DM, RM, 1/1 first
Waesfaren Rhey 10/10 3/4 first
Bonnie 6/6
Krystal 5/5 CL DM RM 1/1 first
Franny Buurlslammer 12/12
Brufrig Granitesunder 3/15
Keilif 9/9 1/3 first

[Monsieur Rose]

Bonnie

Once at the camp, she sets about setting up the walls and creates a few private rooms. "I know you magic types need your rest, and by the look of things Brufrig and Ferris could use a good night's sleep. I'll take a middle shift, so others can have unbroken rest."

Bonnie checks out the surroundings, looking for elevated areas on or near the hut. Taking a page from the ghouls, she'll try and set some snares on the trail to act as a warning device.

[Scott308]

Brufrig Granitesunder

I'll take the first watch and then crash for the night.

[Spearmint]

Krystal


"Shit", she whispers as the cleric goes for his lone walk,"The devout fuckers' sold out his soul and sold us out too by the look of it! I fear we have walked into a trap!" Krystal gets a her spine tingling from the suspense as much as the insect critters. She views the wide open clearing, how far to the treeline surrounding us, a bow shot away? No cover for us, plenty for 'Them' (whoever 'Them' is?)

"Maybe just a touch of cabin fever?"she thinks, trying to relax, still unsure of the cleric and his motives. In the evening, Krystal will busy herself filling half a dozen straw reed mats, rolled up to resemble sleeping figures.

A fire would be good though the smoke may give us away?