Quest #23 "Even The Jungle Wanted Them Dead"

[SirOwen]

Jaxsen Reiter

Looks like I have figured out how to wrap up Jaxsen's last day... and maybe Luther's too!

Jaxsen waits until the small scouts leave. He then comes down from the tree and does NOT go anywhere near where the raiders were. Instead he goes looking for Luther.

Upon finding him, Jaxsen approaches, "Luther! Have you a moment?" If so, Jax begins to tell the tale. "It seems we have some small raiders attacking the farm. They are attacking the honeybee hives!" Trying to realize that this may not seem as important to others as it does to him, he continues, "Sorry, that is a matter of greater concern to me, perhaps, but if they are not checked, it is only a matter of time before they start attacking livestock. I have done some of the preliminary work already. I know the direction they approach from, and I have been careful not to disturb their tracks. But this grub understands his limitations, and I need a skilled tracker to follow light tracks into the forest. All I know is that they have three toes and are about this long." He lets all that soak in and then continues. "I would be happy to help you end this threat. I can take orders well and stay out of the way."

[ChubbyPixie]

CP, according to OM, failing to learn a spell does NOT take a full day. (Avaala has really bad track record with this. ) That is resolved pretty quickly. Nor does failing to learn the spell remove it from the source. That it how Avaala was able to figure out he couldn't learn three spells in one day. (Oh god it hurts to say that!!!)

Aha, good to know. Or, at least, good to be reminded of...

[ChubbyPixie]

Chance to Learn Levitate (85%): [1d100] = 81 Phew! Two Days almost wasted...

Now that he's mastered Majestic Rise, Chauncey will spend the next two days attempting to transcribe Unseen Manservant and another spell which is different and unclear (not sure how to approach this one, OM.)

Chance to Learn Unseen Servant (85%): [1d100] = 96 WASTED... DAY. Ug.
Chance to Learn Unknown Spell (85%): [1d100] = 48

When his chance to learn Unseen Manservant fails, Chauncey will instead attempt to Identify his new, mysterious wand. (Component deducted).

[Monsieur Rose]

Bonnie

She stops, halfway out the door, and tries one last time. "Look, FrannyMonkey, Keilif, whoever you are. At least get the memories right. You did much better with Keilif in the cave. Aldo went to the camp first. Ferris shot one first. We didn't even know there were slaves until we got into the camp!"

"Brufrig wasn't dead when you left, and well Keilif...wait! Don't try to confuse me. You're Keilif now."

"And just as a heads up, real people don't mark success or failure in body counts. They aren't just numbers, a net positive isn't good if some die. The whole balance thing in the Druid must be throwing you off."

She merely rolls her eyes at the final comment. "I'll admit, you've done a much better job than I of convincing people. It's sad how well lying works. You can't even get basic facts right but you're still somehow trustworthy."

Bonnie backs completely out of the door now and quickly leaves.
cue door slamming

Thanks, Jernau, for playing along.

[Monsieur Rose]

Bonnie
A bit later

After wandering through town, covertly determining where everyone lives, she remembers that she and Chauncey went on a frog hunt weeks ago and his hut was the easternmost one near the logging trail.

She knocks on the door and calls out. "Chauncey? Are you in there? I've got some magic questions."

If there is an answer: "I've got some items that I need to be examined. Do you know who could do that?"

[ChubbyPixie]

Chauncey answers the door, exhausted. He looks like a cat that got dragged backwards through a very small opening.

"Oh, hello, Bonnie. I... I'm afraid I'm not operating at peak levels. Identifying is something I can do for you, but not today, and I'm afraid it isn't free. For one thing, you'll need to provide a pearl of no less than 100 gp value - it is consumed in the casting. It is, as you can see, very draining, so some further compensation will be necessary. Though perhaps, as a compatriot, I might do the first one in the spirit of friendship. Still, it will be some days before I am able. There's much research to be done," he says. "If this is unacceptable, perhaps Avaala can assist you?" He walks to his bunk and collapses in it.

[Monsieur Rose]

Bonnie

Bonnie tries to get a few questions in before the door is shut. "Wait! Where's Avaala? Where do I get pearls in this place? Gah! So many questions!" She visibly sags and turns to go.

I think Identify has been altered via house rule. It may not be as exhausting as in the book.

[OGRE MAGE]

It still saps their constitution, just not for an entire day.

But feel free to roleplay it out any way you like. I enjoy the detailed posts.

viewtopic.php?f=446&t=6229&start=20#p472099

[Urson]

Luther
Don't run yourself down, Jax. You've got the right stuff. You're right- if you don't stop 'em when they're sniffing around the fences, you won't be able to stop 'em when they're carrying off lambs. And everyone should be concerned about these things raiding the hives. Honey is great for quick energy.
Let's see what we're dealing with.

Luther gears up, as if this were a full-on expedition. Never know what you'll stumble over. He spends a relatively long time around the hives, studing the tracks. He doesn't get as much simple hunting time as he'd like, so he's enjoying this. I've seen prints like these out in the jungle. I don't have any good idea about what leaves tracks like this, though.
He begins following the tracks, staying off the prints themselves, but walking right beside them.

ability check N [3d6] = 7

[OGRE MAGE]

When Luther and Jax search around the edge of the hive clearing, the ranger does indeed find more of the three toed tracks he has seen before. After a bit of searching, he finds that they lead off into the jungle directly north of town.

Oddly, the prints appear and then disappear often as he tracks. Wherever they vanish, he finds low, accessible tree limbs or vines hanging down. Where there are no branches, he finds the tracks again, surmising that these creatures might be at least partially able to brachiate. Eventually they dissapear for good once the foliage becomes thicker further away from the settlement.

[SirOwen]

Jaxsen Reiter

As soon as Jaxsen realizes that the raiders are spending at least some of their time in the trees, Jaxsen is careful to keep his eyes peeled on the foliage. He has a good idea already that if they were going to attack the village defenders, they would have. But he wants to know if he's being watched.

"Luther," he whispers. "These creatures are well attuned to their surroundings. Twice, I tried to catch sight of them, hiding in a tree, in the dark, and having carefully eaten nothing that would give off a noticeable scent, and neither time would they come out of the shadows. They are very cagey." He considers other facts he has gleaned. "And they must have a fairly formidable hide. The bees would not have given up their honey without a fight."

[Urson]

Luther

Then, I guess the way to protect the honey is to create a dead zone. If we have Liam's hired man cut away all the brush and low branches near the hive, they'll be forced to come out in the open. Maybe they'll decide it's not worth the honey. Add in some leg-hold traps to grab them on the ground, so we can at least get a look at 'em.
I suspect they might be a critter called a kobold- I only saw kobolds once, and Ranger Jax didn't say much about them- just that they're small and thick-skinned.

[SirOwen]

Jaxsen Reiter

Jaxsen nods at the ideas Luther presents. "If you can tell me what we need for those traps, I'll start gathering them. Is it something, perhaps, that they might have at the Hi-Lo?" As the two of them get started on this, Jax makes a quick side trip to talk to Liam's foreman I can't remember his name. and passes along the point that we need to get a couple trees cut down to help make space for, and protect, the hives.

He then goes back to gathering parts for the leg-hold traps Luther described.

[OGRE MAGE]

His name if Joe Franks.

But most people just call him Joe, or Slow Joe if they're mean.

[OGRE MAGE]

I am trying real hard not to overwhelm players with too much action at one time. Since some of you have up to 3 characters doing different things at once, I'm not sure how well that is actually going.

I am also trying to let things play out naturally in this down time in hopes that it can be resolved sooner than later. With 20 things all going on at once, I feel like I have lost track on the future plans of this group, and of the other PC's still hanging around in town.

Dont hesitate to speak up if I slighted you or missed something that you were trying to do in the big picture of things. I know some of you need time to sort out the things you need to do in town, but I dont want to lose focus on what you intend to do in the future, either.

I can help to push things along if you need me to, but I loath leaving PC's behind in the dust because they couldn't keep up.

As I already mentioned, please do your best to police yourselves (and each other, if necessary) through the downtime and let me know once you are caught up so we can move on to the next chapter in this saga.

Thanks!

[SirOwen]

Thanks, OM. So far, so good. With Jax and Luther involved in a Kobold hunt, that should carry them right into "caught up with everyone else", and a separate adventure to boot, maybe!

As for Avaala, I need to allocate one more day for him and he'll be caught up as well. Unfortunately, I have blown so many "% chance to learn spell" rolls, I don't think we have any more he can attempt to learn.

I do have one question though, because I am not entirely up to speed on "what happened when". When does the discussion about putting together the new town council happen? Can Avaala manage to put in a comment there, or is that completely out of sync?

[OGRE MAGE]

That has been an ongoing endeavor for a while now that I believe Liam is heading up. (with Marge, Caleb, and a few other NPC's)

I have been reticent to push the idea along any further recently due to the fact that there has been so much talk about moving the town to a different location. I dont want someone to put a bunch of work into something only to have it change dramatically once a decision is made on whether to stay or move.

Things like that can always be discussed by anyone in the ooc thread at anytime, regardless if your character is "caught up" or not.

[Bluehorse]

Liam is pretty much just trying to put some order to what he sees as chaos. He thinks getting a Council together will centralize decision making for everything going on and organize efforts. Which would include moving the town.

[Jernau35]

Wes

On the morning of his third day back, Wes heads to the Obad Hai blessing tree. He sits and begins to meditate. After about half an hour, he begins to speak softly and gesture as if drawing upon his magical powers but to no apparent effect.. A few moments later, he starts to cast another spell.

At first nothing seems to happen, then, all of a sudden, every flying insect in the environs of Beachtown heads straight for the druid sitting under the tree. He is engulfed in a buzzing, crawling mass from head to toe. Remarkably, Wes just sits there calmly as he is covered by the seething black mass.

Finally, after almost ten minutes the swarm begins to break up. The cloud of bugs slowly disperses, drifting off to bother the population of the town again. Wes spits out a mouthful of insects and gets shakily to his feet. Then he walks off back to his shack, combing bugs out of his hair and beard as he goes.

[Urson]

Luther
Luther would know what they need for the traps, but I sure as hell don't!

Most of it I can make from thin vines, branches, and such. But cord and light wire will be helpful. You might also ask if they have any traps on hand. I'm broke, but maybe she'll lend them out for the good of the town.

Luther begins collecting the bits and pieces he'll need.

Int 15, Wis 14 ability check N [3d6] = 8