The Unseen Servant forums

Aldo

Wes

"A talking tree?" Wes' demeanor changes instantly. "I'd surely like to see that! And after four days in here with this lot, I'd be glad of somebody with better conversationl skills as well." He laughs.

While the others continue to talk, Wes sidles up to Brufrig, and whispers quietly: "Once we are out there I have an idea to get out of the manacles. Let's see if we can get chained together".

Brufrig Granitesunder

A talking tree? What do you expect it to say? "Get these squirrels offa me, they tickle." The dwarf seems amused by the thought. Since everyone else wants to go take a walk in the woods instead of staying in the nice comfy cave, I guess I'll go along to make sure they make it back alive. After we're chained together, do we get our weapons? We won't make it far out there without 'em. Or are you too afraid that tall, dumb, and ugly here would manage to trip and fall on my halberd? Brufrig looks at Wes, then back to Snake Eyes. If I gotta be chained to someone as we wander through the trees, might as well be a druid.

Bonnie

She holds her bag up and whispers to it. "Shh. It's not polite to call him stinky."

The Job
Sunday, 28th of Reaping
Afternoon, Hot, Humid

The attitude of the nature loving members of the group escalates slightly when mention of a magical tree arises. Bonnie, Krystal, and Wes are all for a romp in the forest. Even Brufrig perks up a bit, especially after Wes whispers something about an escape plan. After an ignored threat and a joke, the dwarf steps out of the cave for the first time in days. Keilif is just about to complain about this horrible idea until he sees the surly dwarf agree to the terms.

Bonnie blows a kiss to Snake-Eye, which causes a smile to cover the normally growly man’s face. Right up until she starts whispering to her stinking bag again, that is. The wiry mage speaks up again to address further concerns.

“Splendid then. Fortunately, you won’t need to pick a jungle buddy, as you will all be chained together.”

With that, the huge human starts clapping thick iron shackles onto your ankles. The shackles are all hooked together by thick shipyard chain with about 4 feet of slack in between them, offering you the ability to hang onto the chain and still walk slowly without too much difficulty. You get the impression that running away while chained in such a manner would be nearly impossible however.

Snake-Eye walks up to Bonnie once all the shackles have been tightened and inspected for fit. “You should have told me you liked to be treated rough. I could have easily obliged.”

He points over to the farthest edge of the circular clearing, about 3 miles away and on the opposite side of the farm fields.

“You will find a narrow trail at the very back of the fields. Take that path for a short distance and you will find the tree I am talking about.”

He looks at Brufrig again with a wry smile.

“It won’t be too far, so you shouldn’t need your weapons out there. Not that I would return them to you anyway. If you find something dangerous on your walk, just come back.”

“Any information you get out of the crazy thing will be helpful. And don’t plan on lying. I have means of making people tell the truth, if you follow me.” He says this last line with a wicked grin.

“It will take you a while to get that far like this. That is intentional and another deterrent for your escape. Do you have any questions about this mission before you depart?”

Actions?

Ferris 7/7 DM, RM, 1/1 first
Krystal 5/5 CL DM RM 1/1 first
Keilif C2 15/15 4/4 first
Bonnie T2 9/9
Brufrig Granitesunder F2 15/15
Waesfaren Rhey D2 16/16 4/4 first 3/3 second
Aldo (Deceased) R.I.P (Still Chatting Away From Inside Bonnie's Stinky Bag)

alone in the dark jungle?:
Franny Buurlslammer 12/12 (private thread)

Aldo

Wes

"What kind of tree is it? How did it talk to you? Telepathically? You said you tried to ensorcel it? Was it aggressive? Did it summon other creatures to defend it? Did it stay in one place or get up and move around?"

The druid's professional interest is well and truly piqued now.

Snake

"I have no idea what specie it is, but it definitely isn't one I'm familiar with. It doesn't actually speak......well, it didn't to me anyway. It sounds more like incoherent grumbling. I tried charming it, to no avail. I wouldn't say it is aggressive so much, but it does come in handy for keeping the slav.......I mean, our workers in line. You will see what I mean when you find it. It can move around, but not very quickly. It usually hangs out at the edge of the clearing, but it moves into the jungle too sometimes."

"Anything else?"

Aldo

Bonnie

She stifles a laugh at Aldo. It does warm her heart so that Aldo is still on speaking terms with her, even given his current living-impaired state.

She addresses Snake-Eye. "It's always interesting to learn what each race considers 'rough'. Just last year I was talking to this half-orc barmaid, and the things she thought were rough were quite something."

"Anyway, I digress. So, to recap. Walk three plus miles unsupervised while shackled and weaponless, to talk to an intelligent tree. Did I miss anything?"

Wes

"Only that the alternatives seem to be either execution or remaining here in this small cave enjoying the many and varied scents emanating from your bag. I'm not sure which is worse at this point."

Brufrig Granitesunder

Talking tree, huh? So you want us to bring it back as firewood? What's this job payin'? Did your syphilitic mother have any clue which customer was your father, or were there too many that night to try sorting through? At least you can be pretty sure it was something on two legs, although, maybe you just really take after the whore.

The Job
Sunday, 28th of Reaping
Afternoon, Hot, Humid

Once your group is chained and pointed in the right direction, Brufrig finishes his tirade of insults, as if he is just tempting the unsavory man to do something about it. With a nod from Snake-Eye, Sparky walks up and smashes the dwarf in his face with the pommel of his huge sword. The blow is accurate and quite painful, knocking loose one tooth and bloodying his lips and gums badly. 2 dam

"If you enjoyed that, I could have him do it again, a little harder for you this time maybe?"

"Your payment is letting you all live another day. If that is not enough, there are alternatives."

Actions?

Ferris 7/7 DM, RM, 1/1 first
Krystal 5/5 CL DM RM 1/1 first
Keilif C2 15/15 4/4 first
Bonnie T2 9/9
Brufrig Granitesunder F2 13/15
Waesfaren Rhey D2 16/16 4/4 first 3/3 second
Aldo (Deceased) R.I.P (Still Chatting Away From Inside Bonnie's Stinky Bag)

alone in the dark jungle?:
Franny Buurlslammer 12/12 (private thread)

Bonnie

"Gentlemen! There's no need for hostility. A nice walk will do us some good. Let's go clear our heads and talk to a tree."

She hobbles over to Brufig. "Please. Just walk away. We need a chance to talk anyway."

Wes

"Yeah, best to let it go for now, Wes murmurs. "Besides, you know what they say about revenge: it tastes best cold".

"Unless," he continues, "its 'Randall's Revenge', that new stew he's started serving at the Treehouse.
That doesn't taste good hot or cold. I'd stay away from it if I were you. Unless you fancy spending two days squatting behind a bush with a bunch of leaves in your left hand".

Wes turns to th others. "Anyway, are we off to see this talking tree now or what?"

Ferris

having been quiet in the cave for several days (sorry real life illness and work),

the gnome shackles himself next to one of the elfesses. better to be looking up to some cute ass than that of the druids rotund rear or the stinky wrinkled priests!. Stretching his legs, well that would be a thing for a 3'ft gnome! He takes a skin of water and smuggles away his notebook,"A scrap book of inventions and inspirations", he says and points to his home made contraption pick-bow outside the cave.

"Inventive and inspirational is what we need to get out the shackles and escape proper this time."he whispers to the others.

So the walking tree shambles about? That sounds ominous is it is used to keep the slaves in order. Are they fed to it?

Waesfaeren

The druid isn't particularly offended by Ferris' choice of manacle-mate. If he wants to shackle himself to an elf who has dragged a pack through a tropical jungle, then spent the best part of the week in a cave and is now carrying a dead cat in her bag, then more power to him...

As before, Wes will try to get shackled next to Brufrig.
Wes will also speak to his sparrow companion (now called Nip). He'll ask him to head off into the jungle, in the direction that Snake Eye has indicated the walking tree is in. Wes wants him to find any groups of apes or monkeys, and let Wes know where they are.

Brufrig Granitesunder

The dwarf just smiles at Snake-Eyes, a malevolent glint in his eyes.

The Hike
Sunday, 28th of Reaping
Late Afternoon, Hot, Humid


While Brufrig's face bleeds, the chained gang is positioned in a nearly due north direction and sent along its way. The going is rough at first, until a steady walking rhythm is established. The shorter members need to skip along slightly with the "longshanks" initially.

Bonnie, Ferris, Krystal, Keilif, Brufrig, and Wes are assembled, in that order. Wes casts a spell once the group is out of earshot. He speaks with his tiny friend Nip before sending the sparrow off to count monkeys in the jungle.

You slowly and begrudgingly walk through the 3 miles of manicured farm fields, looking around at your surroundings and back to the camp behind you from a totally new prospective. The high black cliffs to your right are eventually swallowed up by the lush jungle again and are soon out of sight. The land rises in elevation as you travel north, possibly indicating that the center of the island is its highest point.

You pass the single large hut near the middle of the huge clearing. From the smell, it is obvious that this is where the jungle ogres sleep. Those 3 beasts are currently harassing the several workers around the fields, periodically pulling up the stakes they are tied to and pounding them back in with their huge mallets a few feet away so their work can continue. Each ogre looks to be managing about one third of the roughly 30-40 slaves.

When the native men see your group, they stop their hard work and stare at you blankly, not at all sure what to make of your situation. They all look tiered and underfed, with a sad, hollow look in their eyes. They are covered with thousands of nasty insect bites all over them, causing you to wonder how they can even be standing, much less working. The ogres don't appear to be hurting them too badly, but that's likely only because they need them to continue their work. Keilif is visibly shaken at the treatment of these people and mumbles under his breath constantly about how he is willing to die to try freeing them.

Though the herbs that you've seen bundled up is the main crop growing in the fields, there are numerous others as well. You spot vast plantings of many types of vegetables, some of them look similar to things that are grown back home. Corn, potatoes, etc. You also see several plants and bushes that you don't recognize, all planted with care in neat, manicured rows. There are many fruit trees here as well, most of them lining the outer edge of the back of the clearing.

The ogres grunt loudly and wave their mauls at you as you pass or if you get too close to the workers, but they don't stop you from continuing along your way to the back of the clearing. Off in the distance, you spot a dark and ominous trail that is cut out of the tree line. The elves spot a tiny monkey jumping up and down on the ground frantically in the dark opening where the trail enters into the jungle.

Actions?

Ferris 7/7 DM, RM, 1/1 first
Krystal 5/5 CL DM RM 1/1 first
Keilif C2 15/15 4/4 first
Bonnie T2 9/9
Brufrig Granitesunder F2 13/15
Waesfaren Rhey D2 16/16 3/4 first 3/3 second
Aldo (Deceased) R.I.P (Still Chatting Away From Inside Bonnie's Stinky Bag)

alone in the dark jungle?:
Franny Buurlslammer 12/12 (private thread)