Quest 5.5: Bone-nose Needs Help!

[OGRE MAGE]

Quest #5.5 "Help We!"
Sunday, 21st of Reaping, 1389
Mid Morning, Hot, Cloudy, Humid, Buggy

Wes hesitantly follows the gnome into the darkness of the jungle forest, unsure of what fate might await them this far away from town. Quickly catching up to his much shorter friend, the pair rushes up the dirt trail together. They can barely even see Bone-nose anymore under the dark canopy as he sprints off ahead of them, darting around the natural bends of the trail that follows the fast flowing river.

It doesn’t take very long for the duo to completely lose sight of the much faster moving native man as he sprints ahead of them feverishly. Unsure if he is just excited to get some help, or if this whole thing is simply an ambush waiting to happen, the pair slows down so they can look around at their surroundings for any signs of apparent danger.

The dirt trail they now walk is well used and Wes sees many footprints of humans and animals alike as he moves even further into the jungle. He also sees many human sized boot prints here and there along the way. With Bone-nose now completely gone from their sight, Wes and Ferris are not sure what to do next. After a few more steps and another bend in the wide river, the adventurers suddenly spot a clearing along the trail up ahead. It looks like there may be a small village of blackened huts and burnt wooden platforms built around and in the trees. As you cautiously approach, the smell of burnt wood and rotting flesh assails your nostrils.

Actions?

[Bluetongue]

Ferris

With his bow loaded, Ferris will cautiously check out the nearest wooden hut, pushing any door open at the point of the crossbow and standing to one side of the frame. With the fires and stench it would appear that the attack happened recently but if there is no on-going fight we can take some time to see what or who caused the raid. Ferris will check out for the craven birds and other carrion attracted to the smell of 'fresh meat'.

I guess the plan is to go where the noise is, wether that is feasting animals or crying babes. Deathly silence also screams loud to, as if some lurker is about to pounce. He expects bone-nose to reappear, he knows we follow.

[OGRE MAGE]

The air and sound is indeed still here, not silent, but it feels as if there could be trouble just beyond the next burned out hut. There is still no sign of Bone-nose anywhere. Wes looks around carefully, hoping they can find someone to explain what has happened here, but he sees no living thing amongst the carnage. Ferris carefully sneaks up to the nearest burnt thatch building and pushes open the door with his loaded crosspick. The building simply collapses in on itself with a loud crashing thud just from opening the door. As the dust and soot begins to settle on this far end of the clearing, the pair can now see about 10 or so more burned little huts beyond the one that fell. There are a few burnt trees and platforms as well, most of them are also in the same state of destruction as the newly collapsed hut.

Possibly housing only a few dozen native villagers in total at one time, the entire place is now in total ruin. The layout of the village follows along the path of the winding river and the dirt trail seems to continue on even further into the jungle beyond this settlement. Behind the damage of the fallen hut, the pair can now see a few charred bodies strewn about the grounds of this ruined river village, though no carrion eaters are yet evident. Nothing that was burned here remains hot, indicating that the fires were not started in the last few days at least. Suddenly, a flash of movement is seen out of the corner of the gnomes eye. There is something that yet moves here, about 100 feet away, that just disappeared down beyond the bank of the river. Neither of you got a good look at whatever it was, but the noise from the collapsing hut has certainly eliminated any chance of sneaking up on it.

Wes speaks softly with fear in his voice. "I don't like the looks of this place one bit, little friend. We need to be VERY cautious if you plan on searching any further."

Actions!

[Bluetongue]

Ferris

The burned village. Does it show signs of an actual raid, arrows in huts, dead folk with stab wounds. Maybe the fire was an act of god or magic gone wrong, someone cooking up something in the village cauldron which went pop and blew every one up more accidently? Any dug out canoes in the water? Any village chickens running about, crying babes?

taking the advice from Wes about being careful, Ferris will advance cautiously going to check out one of the charred bodies, closing their eyes respectfully. I would expect the wood to be charred but the bodies? Maybe they were caught in the huts and ran out burning or where torched outside trying to run away.

Fire breathing dragons come to mind but they are just gnomic faerie stories to frighten and delight at kiddy parties.

[OGRE MAGE]

Where In The World Is Bone Nose?
Midday
Hot and Cloudy

The river bed is recessed about 6 feet lower than ground level in this area. There is a steep bank that leads down to the water where the movement was seen. Without actually walking over to the bank, you can’t tell if there are boats or anything else at the river’s edge from your current location.

Despite spotting something in that area that might be dangerous, Ferris takes the time to look around the place quite thoroughly. He notices a complete lack of any livestock running around and sees no other living thing left in this tiny village. There are no arrows protruding from the burnt huts, but he does spot a few crossbow bolts stuck in trees and lying around broken on the ground. You notice no evidence of scorched earth in between the huts, indicating that they were likely burnt one at a time instead of being caught in a natural fire or heaven forbid, a dragons attack.

Wes keeps a sharp eye out, especially where Ferris saw the movement near the river bank. The gnome moves up to the first dead body lying on the ground. It is a murdered female native with an obvious piercing chest wound whose body was clearly burned where she lay. You can spot a ring of burnt accelerant around her in the dirt, likely lamp oil, indicating that she was burned right where she lay. Looking closer, you can now see that she was clutching a newborn baby in her arms when they were killed and then burned. Whatever happened here, this unnerving scene sends a sharp tingle up and down the spine of the normally stoic gnome.

Wes just shakes his head in disbelief as he looks around at the horror, spotting a few more burned bodies of women and children strewn about the village. He also notices a few double tracked drag marks in the dirt, leading from a few random spots throughout the clearing and heading towards and over the recessed river bank. Despite the noise of the rushing water, the druid’s eyes bulge and his head snaps around quickly as soon as he hears the tell tale sound of a branch snapping under foot coming from behind him near the unseen drop of the rivers bank.

Whatever the gnome saw, it is either now trying to move behind the pair, or there are more than one of them in this area.

Actions!

[Bluetongue]

Ferris

"Well I think it is time to hide not run away. Drag marks to the river could be anything from wandering crocodiles attracted to the dead bodies or the attackers coming back to claim their booty. I've more a feeling for the latter. The huts are too rickety to shield us without fear of collapse, so lets both hide behind some big tree trunks on the forest edge overlooking the village."


My thoughts on burning huts is more likely a raiding thing but burning bodies after they died tends to be a practice of the 'living community', such as folk killed by ghouls or infected in some way which would rise to kill further.
Also no arrows which are a staple arm of jungle natives, bolts in Ferris' experience tend to be the preserve of demi-humans, dwarves? Ferris will collect a couple of bolts to study, maybe the fletching will in time show some kind of authorship. As to Bone-nose, I suspect he has wandered down the trail and is watching us, maybe knowing these 'creatures' are coming back and assessing how we react, kill, defeat them will determine how he responds to us. His 'help we' invitation makes Ferris think of plural....maybe Boney has hidden some folk away to protect them.

[OGRE MAGE]

Watery Death
Surprise Round

While Ferris and Wes pick out a nice tree to hide behind, all hell suddenly breaks loose in the little clearing. The smell of death and rotting flesh instantaneously becomes much worse.

From the spot where the gnome originally saw the flash of movement, a nasty looking creature jumps up from behind the river bank, The ugly monster heads straight towards the pair of shocked adventurers. It is human size but wears no clothing on its dark bluish green mottled and skinny body. Its round head and gangly limbs also resemble a human, or what maybe once was a human. It is soaking wet and you can tell that its wide mouth and nasty looking fangs and teeth are dripping with fresh blood. Long nailed claws also drip red blood, as if you just disturbed the things macabre meal. It has a long flicking orange tongue that waggles from side to side as it rushes towards you. The monsters eyes are its most frightening feature however, cold, dead, eyes. Like a sharks eyes, except these are filled with rage and hunger. A hunger that can never be satiated. The thing is about 40 feet away and closing fast.

Before the duo can even speak to each other, another one of the ghoulish water dwellers pops up behind you, where Wes heard the branch snap. It seems as though they are trying to come at you from 2 different angles, this one is about 60 feet away as it rushes straight for you. Wes instantly begins waving his hands in the direction of the second, farther away monster, grinding a dried plant between his fingers and spitting on the ground in front of the things path.

Actions!

[Bluetongue]

Ferris

"Ferris...FFS!, ever a time to get 'shakey hands' syndrome!", the gnome chastises himself for a wayward shot which sails over the creatures head into the river. "Alrighty then the 'Toad-in-the Hole' will just have to come and get one in his head!"With the miss, the gnome grounds his feet and waits for the melee or grapple from the beast.

wide mouth and dangling tongue, hope I am fat enough not to be swallowed whole!

[OGRE MAGE]

The monster completely ignores the bolt flying over his head and rushes forward to attack.

IMG_0707.JPG (51.32 KiB) Viewed 709 times

Please stand by for the results. I just wanted to get the picture posted.

[Bluetongue]

oh one of them 5th ed boyz!

[OGRE MAGE]

I am not sure what that means. Is that art from the 5E MM? I just stole it off the interwebs.

Death Bringing More Death
Round 1


Wes finishes his chanting, spitting, and hand waving, his spell causing all of the vegetation in the area directly in front of him to come to life. Branches, weeds, and vines begin to twist and grab at the creature as he rushes at you. The foliage holds fast the despicable monster in full stride, preventing him from advancing any closer. It growls and hisses loudly, trying to free itself from natures grip. The druid smiles at his creation, but his pride is short lived when he turns to see the other monster engaged with his little friend. The druid can now see that these monsters have a webbing of skin between their fingers and toes that are clearly designed for faster movement through the water. Wes starts to think that this trip might have been a bad idea as well.

The wet freak with the wagging tongue dives into action on Ferris, swinging at him with both claws and snapping his disgusting jaws down on him, trying to procure some fresh meat that it can devour. Barely able to avoid its bite and first swing, the gnome is grazed by one of the creature’s sharp, filthy claws. 2 dam and I need a save vs. Paralysis, please. The gnome is surprised at the speed and viciousness of his attacker as his wound bleeds and his joints start to feel a little stiff.

Actions!


Ferris 5/7...... DM, RM, 1/1 first
Waesfaren Rhey 9/10.....3/4 first

[Bluetongue]

The picture is also from the D&D Monster Manual 5th edition, I didn't look to see what it was, I thought of a bullywug or frog type creature.

Ferris saving throw: Saving Throws [1d20] = 12 vs 14

I don't think he receives any racial bonus vs poisons and paralysis as dwarven kin do, he gets help vs magic or spells.

"Oh I feel very queer and light bodied'"says the gnome as chunks get ripped from his now less than meaty shoulder. You would think the paralysis also works as an anaesthetic, but it doesn't...his jaw would open wide and cry loud but the stiffening just make shim gulp rather loud and frog like. He hisses..."Bone-head where art thou?"

[OGRE MAGE]

That is NOT a frickin Bullywug!!!

Only a single moment passes when you realize that you can no longer move any parts of your body. You are still fully cognizant of what is happening and of your surroundings, but no matter how hard you struggle against it, you are helpless to do anything but stare down your vicious and painful death at the hands of this horrid monster. Unable to defend yourself now, the beast tears into you again, striking with claw and bite. 6 dam The last thing you see before succumbing to total paralytic unconsciousness is Wes coming to your defense, administering a flying shoulder tackle, trying to prevent the monster from eating any more of you. At the moment you realize that you are both doomed, a tiny bright red feathered bamboo dart shoots by your face and plunks deep into the side of the creatures neck.

Ferris's vision then fades to utter blackness.

You are now unconscious and at the mercy of the dice. I will roll out the results of the battle between this Lacedon, Wes, and whoever shot the dart, then let you know how things end up.

Good luck!!!

Ferris -1/7...... DM, RM, 1/1 first
Waesfaren Rhey 9/10.....3/4 first

[Bluetongue]

okay back in camp waiting to recover health and my contraption. and hear from Wes the story of my heroic interventions....

[OGRE MAGE]

Heroic what?

Okay, thanks. Stand by.....