Quest #19 "Mapping Out The Jungle"

[OGRE MAGE]

The Search Continues
Freeday, 12th of Goodmonth
Evening, Warm, Humid, Very Buggy

Seeing no other people around, Grimm agrees that the group would be best suited to rest out the night in the pavilion again. The native guards who stayed up the night before quickly set up the walls and make themselves comfortable inside while Powstap gets them some water and starts a fire.

Before long, the exhausted guards and the pair of frightened captives are fast asleep on their makeshift sleeping mats, leaving only Grimm and Powstap awake to guard them as they chat quietly together and listen to the cacophony of jungle noise outside their humble accommodations.

“We take pirates to chief in morning. Den what?”

Action?

Grimm 7/8

[Karaunios]

Grimm shrugs: "Your chief will say. But I think we should kick out the pirates from your villages." The dwarf looks attentively around them while keeping up his guard until it's time get some sleep later in the night/early morning.

[OGRE MAGE]

The Search Continues
Freeday, 12th of Goodmonth
Late Evening, Warm, Humid, Buggy

Powstap looks at the dwarf and nods his head.

"Once we get a few more warrior wit us, we chase off pirates, fi good!"

The aging native lays down on his matt and falls asleep instantly, leaving Grimm as the groups only guard. After a few hours of swatting the mosquitos that snuck inside, the dwarf starts to hear a loud rustling noise outside the walls of the pavilion.

Action?

Grimm 7/8

[Karaunios]

Grimm nudges Powstap awake and signals him to be silent. He points at the area where the rustle noises are coming from. The he stands up and unsheathes his long sword and tries to approach the place stealthily, using any cover that might be on the way to give him some advantage.

[OGRE MAGE]

The Search Continues
Freeday, 12th of Goodmonth
Late Evening, Warm, Humid, Buggy

Powstap wakes instantly, as if he wasn't even sleeping. He listens to the noise outside the pavilion for a moment before simply shaking his head.

"No worry. Go sleep now fren."

The rustling noise continues outside the walls of the hut, but it doesn't get louder or try to come inside.

Action?

Grimm 7/8

[Karaunios]

Grimm feels pretty tired at this point and trusts Powstap's knowledge of the jungle so he decides against doing anything in regards to the strange noises. He'll ask his friend tomorrow. "Fine. Good night." He makes himself as comfortable as possible and goes to sleep.

[OGRE MAGE]

The Search Continues
Starday, 13th of Goodmonth
Early Morning, Warm, Humid, Buggy

Grimm trusts the instincts of the jungle native, despite the fact that their entire line of villages, along with their main camp, was recently taken over by the group of dangerous pirates stationed just up the trail from where they are currently sleeping.

The dwarf hears more of the rustling throughout the night, but he is eventually able to get a decent nights rest. (healed 1 hp)

The next morning, the natives are already awake, cooking some kind of jungle stew over an open fire on the hearth inside the pavilion. They motion the sleepy dwarf over to eat with them once they notice he is awake. The pair of gagged and tied captive smugglers sit in one corner of the closed pavilion, apparently wanting nothing to do with their captors or their strange breakfast.

Action?

map:

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Grimm 8/8

[Karaunios]

Grimm stretches once he's awake. A short night of sleep does not help much after a long day of walking through the jungle, but it's better than nothing. He readily joins the natives in the breakfast and accepts whatever they're eating, letting the pirates be.

Once they're done with the stew, he gets ready and motions them to continue on their path to the chief's village, so they can handle him the captives and then start making plans for retaking the jungle back for natives.

He walks with his long sword in his hand, letting the captives walk in the front line with their heads covered with his sacks and gagged with vines. He points them with the tip of the sword when it's necessary.

While they're on their way, he decides to ask Powstap about the rustling last night.

[OGRE MAGE]

The Search Continues
Starday, 13th of Goodmonth
Early Morning, Warm, Humid, Buggy

While Grimm and the natives are eating their jungle brown stew breakfast, they suddenly hear a stern voice in the common tongue coming from outside of the enclosed pavilion.

"We have you surrounded! Let our friends go......NOW......and you wont be killed!"

Action?

map:

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Grimm 8/8

[Karaunios]

Grimm mutters a curse under his breath. Then, suddenly, an idea crosses his mind. "Ach, really? If ye're so many, then why don't ye shoot an arrow frae the west, lad! C'mon, show me!", he says trying to exaggerate the typical dwarven accent.

[OGRE MAGE]

The Search Continues
Starday, 13th of Goodmonth
Early Morning, Warm, Humid, Buggy

The bound men seem to perk up considerably once they hear the familiar voice coming from outside.

After Grimm's suggestion, he hears the voice again. "Ye herd em, lads! Loose!!!"

Six crossbow bolts suddenly rip through the rolled down mat walls of the pavilion, three from the west and 3 more from the east.

"Do ye believe me now?" The voice sounds out again. "Let em go, er the next volley will be even worse!"

Action?

map:

same map

Grimm 8/8

[Karaunios]

Grimm curses under his breath. He feels defeated, for the time being, and starts worrying for the safety of his native friends. "Please, don't do anything. They win more. But we'll fight them later." he sais in ask seriousness. He starts unbinding the two prisoners. "You can tell your friends of your little vacation now. Hah! Say to them how we treated you like princes. I'm sure they wouldn't like you having told me all what you told me... Don't worry, if they ask me, you didn't tell me anything of worth. Now, go." He tries to get back the two sacks he used to cover the pirates' heads but will hold them in his hand for the time being, not wanting to do any sudden movement.

"You win! Here they go!"

[OGRE MAGE]

The Search Continues
Starday, 13th of Goodmonth
Early Morning, Warm, Humid, Buggy

The voice outside remains silent until the pair of prisoners exit through one of the rolled wall flaps. Then the man speaks again.

"Nice to have you two morons back. Now torch the place boys, and lets get out of here!"

Grimm can smell torches and spots one corner of the thatch pavilion slowly catch on fire. Powstap looks concerned, but not terribly frightened, more mad then anything else, really. The pair of native guides moves to another corner of the hut and begin pulling floorboards up in the area that covered the well.

Action?

map:

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Grimm 8/8

[Karaunios]

"Dammit! mutters the dwarf under his breath. Then, Grimm runs towards the well area and starts helping the natives with the floorboards as fast as he can.

He adresses Powsatp: "We will have our revenge!"

[OGRE MAGE]

The Search Continues
Starday, 13th of Goodmonth
Early Morning, Warm, Humid, Buggy

Powstap shouts back to Grimm as the dry thatch catches ablaze instantly, with 2 more spots on the roof starting to burn now. "We no fiya bun!"

Not sure what the natives are actually doing, the dwarf is shocked when he sees the first native slip head first into the narrow hole in the floor of the large hut. Like a slinking snake entering its hole, the first native disappears into the water. The second takes a deep breath and follows directly behind the first.

Powstap hurries them along, ready to follow closely behind. He looks up.......grimly at Grimm. "You can held you bret fi long time, ya?"

Action?

Grimm 8/8

[Karaunios]

At first, Grimm is startled by the natives' actions, but he somewhat suspected that was going to be the action to be taken. He looks at Pawstap and nods seriously, not wanting to waste any more time with hesitation. He gets in to the well just behind the other two natives, as he doesn't want his friend to be more at risk than necessary. And starts swimming down the dark well.

[OGRE MAGE]

Grimm wont fit through the hole with his pack on, so unless he wants to leave it behind, he will need to either push it in front of him as he swims, or tie it off and drag it behind himself.

No deep breath first?

Can I get a Normal [3d6] Constitution check from Grimm, please? (you REALLY want to make this one)

[Karaunios]

Grimm, not finding what to tie his backpack to his ankle with, decides to discard it, along with everything that he carried there... Not with some regret. He just takes the time to tight his weapons to and one of the waterskins to his belt.

Tell me what I should remove from my character sheet, but I take it's pretty much everything from the backpack downwards on the list. Should the bolts hold in the quiver (as if it had a tab to hold them in or something)?

He takes a deep breath before plunging himself into the well.

Normal Skill Check: [3d6] = 13 Constitution of 14.

Yeah, why not. The call to adventure! And the road to Hell

[OGRE MAGE]

The Search Continues
Starday, 13th of Goodmonth
Early Morning, Warm, Humid, Buggy

As the roof of the hut starts to rain hot sparks and burning ash down upon them, Grimm makes a difficult decision. Powstap looks at him with a hint of urgency in his eye when the dwarf casts off his pack to leave behind. The unselfish move likely saves both of their lives.

Jumping headfirst into the hole, the dwarf inhales a lung full of breath before sliding below the waterline. He pulls himself through the dark tunnel, kicking and swimming as fast as he can behind the others in front of him. It is pitch black in the narrow horizontal passage, but he is sure that he is only a few feet under the ground. The dwarf soon realizes he is inside what must be hollowed out tree trunks of thick black logs of some kind. He doesn't spend too much time analyzing the situation, more intent on getting to wherever this tunnel ends up. He is happy to hear signs of his friend splashing along behind him as he moves through the strange pipe as fast as he possibly can.

Swimming in what must be an easterly direction, Grimm starts to see the feint hint of light up ahead of him, causing him to swim even harder. Miraculously, and just about the time he thought his lungs would simply explode, the four men reach the open end of the hollowed out tree trunk pipe and exit out into the river. Swimming upwards, each of them reach the surface and inhale deeply after their harrowing experience.

Now bobbing up out of the river, Grimm sees the pair of natives holding their fingers to their mouths, hoping he wont shout out as they slowly paddle to the bank a few feet away. Powstap eventually pops up out of the water as well, following the others lead over to the shoreline. There you spot about a dozen of the smugglers watching the thatch pavilion burn to the ground, completely unaware that their once trapped enemy has survived and is now watching them from behind.

Action?

Grimm 8/8

Epic roll, avoiding death by a total of one point on the dice.

Since you already had the sacks out, I will allow you to keep those. Otherwise, here is what you lost in the fire:
1 Backpack, leather
1 Mirror, large metal
3 Torch
1 Tinder Box, with flint & steel
2 Waterskin
1 Rations, iron
Not exactly great, but way better than dying.

[Bluehorse]

watches intently, eating popcorn