[Adventure] Serpent's Skull: Souls for Smuggler's Shiv (DM: Mewness; Judge: THB)

[Dekana]

Castile nods as Takahaan speaks. When he's done, she also tries to recruit Pezock. "Between the cannibals, spiders, and plants, you must agree that it will be safer with everyone together. After all, your hiding spot may not work forever, but there's nothing so far that we haven't been able to fight off as a group."

OOC: I'd also like to check out the shipwreck, if just to make sure it isn't the ship Jade was looking for. I guess I'll take the Guardian theme. I like the animal master one, but it just doesn't do much mechanically for Castile

 

[BenBrown]

Hú Lí emerges looking as poised and elegant as ever, with her hair coiled elaborately above her head--in fact, she looked like this about five minutes after the fight.

"While the trail of the prey is still warm," she says, "a predator would continue the hunt. Yet we have left our companions behind. We have spent one night away. If we spend another they may worry and venture forth."[sblock=Hú Lí]The Black Fox Fox Spirit (Changeling) Bard 3
Initiative: +2, Passive Perception: 17, Passive Insight: 19
AC:18, Fort:12, Reflex:16, Will:17
+3 vs. AC, 1d6-1 damage

HP:34/34, Bloodied:17, Surge Value:8, Surges left:8/8
Action Points: 1, Second Wind: unused
Powers: Fox Spirit Disguise, Wild Shape, Staggering Note, Vicious Mockery
Blunder, Fox Spirit Trick, Grasping Claws, Majestic Word x2, Words of Friendship, Noble Presence, Painted Drum
Stirring Shout, Canon of Avoidance

Virtue of Cunning: Once per round, when an enemy misses an ally within 9 squares of the Black Fox, the Fox may slide the ally 1 square as a free action.

Conditions:
none
[/sblock]

 

[Pentius]

Noriaki shakes his head. "We are not just predators, ka-Hu Li. We are men. And as such, we must check in on our fellows. We might see victory after victory, but it means nothing if our fellows perish. No, our duty is to them, now."

OOC: Totally promise to do stats soon. Just been busy with family stuff. My grandmother may be about to see her last thanksgiving. :/

 

[Mewness]

Pezock looks around his unusual home with real affection--oddly, he seems warmly attached not just to his giant crab house-puppet but to the Shiv itself. Still, the long periods of loneliness he has endured make him eager for company. "Well..." he mutters. "Well. It's just.... It's terribly hard to.... I suppose nothing too bad can happen if I'm away for a little while, can it, Pearl? And it would be nice to meet some more people. So many new people, after all this time!" Pezock wipes away a tear. He argues with himself for some time, now leaning towards going with his new friends, now towards staying. He has just about settled on staying behind, out of fear that the cannibals may discover that his house is not a living crab and destroy it while he is gone, when he sees the others preparing to leave. Unable to bear their departure so soon, he ends up joining the group after all. His last impulse is to collect a pick and a shovel that he has lying around, in case the group decides to do some treasure hunting. The tools are rather heavy for him, so he hands the pick to Castile and the shovel to Takahaan.

The trek back toward the main camp is uneventful. As the adventurers reach the place on the path where they first spotted one of the cannibals' traps, Pezock points vaguely to the east. "I think it was over there that I saw that bare hill. You can't see it from here, because the forest is so thick. Perhaps if we went south a little bit to the coast, you'd see it. There's another old campsite there. There's a shipwreck a bit further down the coast, too--that's where I found a lot of this equipment."

GM: If you refer to the map on the first page, you're now back at the eastern-most point J. Pezock is indicating that if you want to get a look at the bare hill, you should go south along the branch of the path you didn't take originally. It's now about 2pm. Continue back to the main camp, or investigate a little? Pentius--sorry your grandmother isn't well.

 

[jbear]

Kane positively beams when he realises how close he is to the location of the painted map.

It w-would be almost f-f-foolish n-not to explore the area!"

OOC: Kane definitely wants to investigate. It would mean we clear a massive area of the fog of war once we reach the top of the hill, and possibly spot other important areas further away from that vantage point. Who knows, we may even spot something that gives us a clue towards the captain! A definite 'Yes' vote from me

 

[GROMkill]

OOC: My feeble attempts at requiring skill checks for the sake of additional RP

Takahaan's injured leg causes quite an annoyance to the dragonborn as the group treks back to the campsite. Although he had wrapped it up with some clean cloth, under his armor, the wound had re-opened and he could see a bit of blood seeping through and clinging to his armor.

Despite the continual stinging pain and bruised soreness from the tight grip the lizard had on his leg, he manages to keep the pain to himself and the limping at a minimum, almost unnoticeable.

[sblock=Insight 15 or First Aid 15]
The dragonborn's wound seems to be safe and nowhere near enough to seriously hurt him, but you can tell by his mannerisms that it does throb and sting quite a bit. Sweat runs down the side of Takahaan's temples, partly from the thick jungle's humidity but also from gritting his teeth and mentally shaking off the wound. You can see that he is trying to conceal a slight limp, as well.
[/sblock]

Cracking a brief smile at the surprise of Kane's enthusiasm, he raises his voice to offer his opinion, as well.

"Yes. If you believe that is the hill from the sketch, Pezock, then we should at least scout out the area. If we find something helpful, it will be worth the extra time it will take to meet up with our friends."

 

[Mewness]

Heading down the south branch of the trail, the group soon comes upon another abandoned campsite. The construction is somewhat more sophisticated than in the other camps--there is a small wooden building here, indicating that the inhabitants must have had some time to build before the cannibals caught up to them.

As in the other camps, there are signs of violence--old bloodstains and marks on the walls. On the inside of one wall, someone has carved a pentagram and hammered several human teeth into the wood at its center. Gelik looks closely at this and frowns, but a muttered “Odd symbol for a bunch of savages to be using,” is his only comment.

Castile notices an object half-buried in the dirt floor. It turns out to be a metal amulet with runes carved into it.

[sblock=Virtual gold purchase for Castile]Castile “buys” an amulet of protection +1 for 360 gp.[/sblock]

The campsite is quite near the coast. The line of the cliff allows the group a longer view without the interference of jungle, and indeed the bare top of a hill is visible to the east. As Pezock said, it is not the same shape as the hill in the picture, but the viewing angle is wrong, and it might well conform if viewed from the other side.

The coast here curves inward to form a bay, with more land visible to the south.

OOC: The two votes win out of promptness =D Map has been updated on the first page.

 

[jbear]

Hands on hips Kane looks at the hill top east trying to gauge the distance and the time it might take to get to the top from here.

Overhearing Gelik's comment and his curiosuty piqued he tears his eyes away from the tantalisingly close destination and he enters the shack to take a look at the symbol carved on the wall.

 

[Mewness]

The hill is not that far off; Kane estimates that it would take less than an hour for them to work their way around the coast and through the jungle to the foot of it. It's hard to say how long it would take to climb.

The symbol on the wall does not bear any traces of magical power; if it was used as part of some ritual, it was probably quite some time ago. There are no other traces of ritual magic in the building, though. The pentagram is also sometimes connected with the goddess Hekates, a figure associated with witchcraft and secrecy.

 

[jbear]

"A s-sign of evil. He-hekates. W-witchcraft. If b-blood was s-spilled here b-by the can-canibals ... there w-was n-no witch amongst th-those we k-killed. It is not o-over."

Kane leaves the shelter his mood lightning once again in the fresh air. With a grin he sends his coin spinning into the air.

"Anyone fancy a c-climb? W-we can be back h-here in t-two hours if we p-push hard."

OOC: Any thoughts of recruiting a 6th player to replace our retired Piskies? Or are you holding out hoping he'll manage to get back to the game at some later stage? A new player might bring some pace back to things.