Quest #23 "Even The Jungle Wanted Them Dead"

[SirOwen]

Avaala the Grey

Avaala wakes early the next morning. He and Treasure walk down to the Treehouse and grab a nice, quiet corner to share breakfast, Avaala encouraging his familiar to help himself from the plate and bowl as well. (-2 sp about right?) They do not tarry over the meal, however."C'mon, busy day ahead. I think Chauncey can help, but you have a long history with a powerful Mage, too, buddy. I'm hoping you have some input."

They stop by their shack and pick up Avaala's book and study materials, along with the found spell book and its remaining spells. They then proceed to Chauncey's shack and knock on the door.

[OGRE MAGE]

So, to keep those actions separate from the other players, would it be better to put those 5 days here in this thread? I think it would be easier to keep everything spaced that way. And that way, all the players can see what "happened" during those five days, to keep up on current events, even while we strive not to interfere.

EDIT: But that needs to go both ways. It will be important for those outside this to not try to interact with it.

That is a great idea!

Please do all of that right here in this thread for everyone to see unless there are things you need to do privately!

[Jernau35]

It makes sense. I was planning to just have Wes go to the Treehouse and be "too tired to talk to Randall". Otherwise there'd be
no reason not to tell him about Monocar, which would screw up that thread about delivering the crate. I'm fine with keeping stuff here.

[OGRE MAGE]

That's another great point.

If you guys see a chance to keep the continuity of past actions in tact, please feel free. I wont hold you to anything, but if you remember something that I didnt, go ahead and add it into your actions.

I realize that there will be minor discrepancies now and again, but as long as I dont see anyone deliberately trying to undermine or cause problems, the little issues will be easy enough to wave off.

Again, not a perfect system, but better than anything else I have thought of. So, if you have any suggestions (or questions), shoot em at me.

[SirOwen]

Jax has an agenda completely separate from the others. I don't think this will mess with anything.

Jaxsen Reiter

16th

As the sun just breaks the horizon, Jaxsen steps out of the Common House. He runs the short distance to the beach, and draws several deep breaths, focusing himself. He begins his stretching regimen, feeling the ocean air on his body and cool water lapping at his feet. As his body begins to loosen, he slowly transitions from stretching to katas, concentrating on his position and balance and rhythms and prayers to Queen Bralm. Finally, as the exercises come to an end, he runs into the water, washing the sweat from his body, and performing his ritual bathing, oddly reminiscent of watching an insect clean itself.

Finished with his morning duties, he returns to the Common House. He once again cleans and sweeps, trying to keep the place as clean and sanitary as possible for the others that live there. He checks any bandages he applied the night before and changes anything that obviously needs it.

Once this is finished, he decides to check on his 'other' hive, Liam's bees. Returning to where the older noble has established the beginnings of a farm, he walks directly to the apiary. When he arrives, it is all he can do to keep his emotions in check. All the work he had done destroyed and now the honey raided, he realizes that he must not waste any time bemoaning the situation when there is much work to be done. He can see that others have endeavored to repair some of the damage, and takes some comfort in that. He immediately sets to work.

He stops first at the fishermen's base, once again gathering the waste of their business. Netting fragments, bits of frayed rope, short, splintered bamboo fragments, broken hooks and the like can all be used by the Monk, and he takes them, with many thanks to the fishermen. He brings them all back to the apiary and separates them into piles. Then he gathers what remains of the very specialized nets he tied before. These take time and the fewer he has to do from scratch, the better.

"The frames first," he thinks. He reinforces the now-sagging bases, straightening and strengthening them. He checks the leveling and stability and makes any adjustments needed to keep them from wobbling, binding the pieces together with strands and lays from the strong fishing rope. All while jostling the bees themselves as little as possible, recognizing the trauma they have already experienced. Jax begins humming along with the hive, as both sing the praises of Queen Bralm.

Once the frames are satisfactory, Jax checks the boxes themselves, patching over holes made by whoever raided the hive. Small bits and pieces of wood are attached using the broken hooks as tacks and small nails. If necessary, Jax will go into the treeline and gather some mud for a more sealed patch. He continues humming along with the bees, reaching an almost meditative state. Once the sides of the boxes are properly sealed, he checks the net framework, getting it ready for the nets once again.

Breaking from a morning's worth of 'toiling mightily', Jaxsen allows himself a bit of dried fish, local fruit and water. He thanks Marge for the water and rags of the night before and promises to be ready for water carrying duty the next day if needed. He then gets back to work on the hives.

Then, the longest, slowest part of the work begins. Jaxsen once again begins pulling and tying the fragments of net, closing the holes in the nets to the very specific size required to allow the bees to come and go while keeping out their larger predators. While it would be maddeningly tedious for most, the Monk finds the work relaxing as he continues to hum along with the bees, meditating and praying all the while, his mind almost unaware of what his fingers are doing. Hours pass as the finely detailed covering slowly comes to completion. Afternoon is just about halfway to evening when the sections are done. Bringing back the sections he tied before and tying them together with the new sections, he finally has a completed protective covering for the hive. He checks it over once again to ensure that no holes exist for insect predators to raid through.

As before, the next to last step is to remove any predators that are within the hive already. And the Fighting Priest of Bralm doesn't hurt these insects, either, merely removing them and tossing them into the air away from the hive.

Finally, he drapes the new covering over the net framework, making sure that all access to the hive is protected by the finely tied net.

Jaxsen then returns to the sea, washing once again, doing his best to remove all scents other than the sea itself, knowing that his lunch should sweat no unusual scents. He then gathers his weapons, hiding his Halberd in the sand at the base of the tree, but carrying his Javelins and climbs into the tree that is both closest to the hive and has enough foliage to hide in. Then he waits to see if the raiders return.

(Climb Walls, with all bonuses = 116%) Let me know if I need a roll for this.

[OGRE MAGE]

That was awesome!

Give me a roll anyway and try not to get 00.

[SirOwen]

Here goes!

Climbing a tree. [1d100] = 87

Yaaayyy!

[Urson]

Luther
Luther will spend his 5 days on odds and ends. He should be able to manage all of these, but if there's a question of timing, this is how he'll prioritize.

* Healing, and getting back to being fighting-ready.
* Creating a well-balanced, solid club. He'll take some time to carve the names of his zombie-fied friends into the wood. (Not a great carving job, but serviceable).
*Collecting sketch maps from the others on the trip, trying to get the clearest, best idea about the whole 'basement' complex. Also anything they can tell him about the time while he was at Death's door. I'll use the maps from OM
*Gathering materials to make proper arrows.

[Jernau35]

Wes

Early the next morning Wes catches up with Avaala.

"Avalaa!A moment of your time, if you have one. I know we're all going to be busy for the next few days."

"You've mentioned your trip to the Spider Maze several times. You said there was a druid with you? A halfling I believe? Now then, do you happen to know what happened to the sickle he carried, after he died?"

"I lost my own sickle to the pirates and a dagger just doesn't feel right".

[SirOwen]

Avaala the Grey

Avaala nods when Wes asks about Storm. "Yes. Storm was his name. Unfortunately when he passed he was on the other side of a locked gate. I don't think much or any of his belongings were retrieved. But anything he had would still be there, I think. We left very little alive there."

[SirOwen]

Avaala the Grey

Avaala starts to walk away from Wes, but then turns. "If you want to go there, I would go with you. There is something there I would retrieve, too. Maybe a couple things."

[Jernau35]

Wes

Wes takes the thigh bone he was keeping as a club over to the Obad Hai blessing tree. He digs out a hole near the base of the tree and places the bone in it, then covers it up.

"Shalm, I've placed a bone here. Just a piece of a man. I'm not too proud of carrying it all the way back here. But I was desperate back then. You know. My friends needed help and I was grabbing out for anything."

"I don't know who this was. Probably a follower of Pelor, before Gorman got to them. I figured this was a good place for them to rest, at the bottom of your tree. Just like Pelor waits at the bottom of the Summer tree, to cut you down and let the Spring begin."

Wes pushes a bit more dirt over the hole, then looks around for one or two small plants to transplant there. With that done, he sprinkles a little water on to the soil and murmurs a short blessing. Finally he walks away, head bowed.

[Monsieur Rose]

Bonnie

Bonnie spends the night in the common room, hoping that her spare sword and armor are still on the cot where she left them.

In the morning she washes in the sea, just arriving as Jaxsen is finishing. "Hey Jaxsen. It might be a few days until we get moving to see the dragon. Is that going to be ok with you?"

She cleans up and starts moving around town, chatting, and avoiding certain people. For now. She notices Wes digging in the dirt next to the tree and watches from a respectable distance. As he finishes and walks away, she joins him.

"Wes? I know you don't trust me. Well, now I do. There aren't many of us seasoned adventurers around, and now there's even fewer. I'd like to work out our differences in the spirit of community." She lowers her eyes and continues. "The conversation with the Dragon forced me to realize that some things I've done have been misunderstood and I'd like the chance to clear the air."

[Jernau35]

Avaala the Grey

Avaala starts to walk away from Wes, but then turns. "If you want to go there, I would go with you. There is something there I would retrieve, too. Maybe a couple things."

Wes

"No, I have no particular plans to travel there. I knew that weapons and gear were brought back. I was hoping his sickle would be in there somewhere. But if not, I'll continue without one".

I checked the mission. Saracen took most of Storm's gear. But not his sickle. So it's buried out there with him.

[OGRE MAGE]

I worked on this one for hours! I gotta start taking better notes!

I wanted to get this done quickly so our resident xp junkies don’t go into withdrawals.

viewtopic.php?f=446&t=6230&p=482037#p482037

Let me know if you see anything wrong.

[OGRE MAGE]

After spending the day repairing and improving on the hives defense even more, Jaxsen doesn’t see anything come into the area throughout the first session of his watch. Oddly, he isn’t stung by even one bee the entire day.

Bonnie locates her friends and avoids her enemies in the common house, finding her old things where she left them. She appears able to avoid the prying eyes of those she cares to avoid throughout town, slinking around at times like a common.....well.....thief.

Oddly, whispers and rumors are slowly circulating about a huge clear obelisk that was found to the east of the area where you just were. It seems to be piquing the interest of a few of the more hearty adventurer types around town.

The entire group rests, reads, prays, and washes themselves to their harts content, happy to be back in this sad little excuse for civilization.

[Jernau35]

Wes spends his first day sitting beneath Obad-Hai's tree, reading the Druidical text that was found in the temple. he takes breaks only for brief meals in the Treehouse. At the end of the day, he retires to his shack.

Early on the second day, he goes on the hunt for feathers. He asks the men at the bonfire if they have any of the axebeak feathers left over after it was cooked. He also hunts near the town midden for any left over axebeak feathers, or others that might be left by scavenging seabirds. Once he's collected a sizable amount, he once again retires to his shack, emerging only for meals.

[SirOwen]

Avaala the Grey
The 16th

I'm going to make an assumption or two about Chauncey's actions. Please, CP, if I get anything wrong about it, let me know.

Arriving at Chauncey's shack early, Avaala knocks. Upon entering, the two Mages waste little time getting down to business, both establishing the damage to Avaala, and assessing the level of permanent damage. At first, the news seems a bit bleak, as it is quickly established that 2 minor spells that Avaala was unable to master previously still seem to be beyond his comprehension. Chauncey drills Avaala on the Laws of Logic and Illogic and the importance of micro-focusing, but although Avaala seems to have no difficulty with the concepts, applying those rules to the two spells in question simply seems outside of Avaala's abilities. Deciding not to subject Avaala to some of his mother's more extreme testing methods, they decide to 'shelve' the issue for now.

On the other hand, the two more powerful charms regarding Invisibility and the Detection of Invisibility, which had been lost to him after the King's attack, are now completely understandable again. He finds them as though they had been locked away in his mind, but now opened to him again. Avaala sees this as an indication that the damage may be healing, like a more physical wound. Not as sure as his friend, Chauncey continues to drill Avaala on basic magical theory, looking for any weakness in his overall skills. Finding none, Chauncey tells Avaala to work on his development skills, using something from his recent activities to create a new enchantment.... over in the corner..... quietly... so Chauncey can do some work on his own spell research.

Avaala and Treasure do exactly that, moving into a corner of the shack, telepathically communicating and trying to choose what experiences are likely to result in a new spell. Not surprisingly, their thoughts seem to gravitate towards a point of pride, the death of Gorman. They silently speak of the fire and smoke that drove them back, and the trick Gorman used in his escape attempt by turning himself into smoke. "Smoke as a weapon," Treasure thinks to Avaala. "Magical smoke." Avaala nods, "Yes, something that can get past armor, something that doesn't care if you're a man, a bear, or a giant spider. Something that will debilitate anything." The mage drops into an almost trance-like state, scribbling notes, sending his mind into the planes of illogic and geometries that do not exist in the normal world.... and he discovers something.... noisome.

[SirOwen]

Jaxsen Reiter

16th - Night

Jaxsen takes a drink from one of his waterskins, but doesn't open his ration bag, for fear of giving away a stray scent. A long history of meditation and deprivation keep missing a meal or two from being a major detriment, though. "Time enough for food in the morning," he thinks to himself.

Realizing that he has been sitting in the same position for some time, the Monk begins flexing different muscle groups in his feet, legs and lower back, keeping blood flowing to them and preventing cramps or paralysis if he needs to move suddenly. The hand and arm holding one of his javelins is likewise treated.

He listens to the night noises, harkening to the voices of the insects and animals, knowing that they will likely detect an intruder before he does. He also reminds himself that when the time comes, not to make any extraneous noise when he throws his javelin. Coming out of the dark, silently, the weapon shouldn't give away his location.

[Jernau35]

Bonnie


"Wes? I know you don't trust me. Well, now I do. There aren't many of us seasoned adventurers around, and now there's even fewer. I'd like to work out our differences in the spirit of community." She lowers her eyes and continues. "The conversation with the Dragon forced me to realize that some things I've done have been misunderstood and I'd like the chance to clear the air."

Wes hears Bonnie out, then sighs heavily. "It's a hard choice, to give you a chance. Most of what I've seen has been a trail of poor choices at best."

"But as you say, we don't have the luxury of a lot of options here in our adopted community. I suppose the least I can do is hear you out. Would you prefer in private or over a grog in the Treehouse?"