[KAUAI]The Rod of Seven Parts: Of Hexes and Gems

[CanadienneBacon]

Watch order: Gamad, Brakkus, Maelicent, Voadam, Chev. For characters who wear armor, please indicate whether your PC removed his armor or is wearing it while he sleeps (and whether he has the endurance feat). Also, is there a lit fire in the cave?

Back in the terraced cave, Brakkus, Voadam, Chev, and Gamad settle in for the night. Taking the first watch, Gamad prepares to watch the cave. After an hour of solicitous quiet, Gamad's ears prick to the sounds of something dragging up the passageway.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Ducking down and stepping behind the nearest sapling, Maelicent gives the area a slow turn, scanning for more poachers. His sight is keen; two pairs of glittering eyes watch the carnivorous rat from behind a fallen rotting log twenty feet further into the clearing. Taking care to watch for movement, one of the lurking creatures shifts its bulk, affording Maelicent a clear but brief view of the same sort of skeletal rat lying in wait. Its brethren beside it remains still.

 

[Strahd_Von_Zarovich]

Gamad

Gamad limps to where Brakkus lies and puts his hand on the fighter's shoulder.
Better be ready lad, something is crawling in the back.
He then decides to cast a spell. With a simple word "yad" a ghostly hand appears, Gamad guides the hand to the fighter's lantern, pick it up and guides the lantern to the far side of the cave's tunnel.

*Mage Hand on lantern, max range of spell 15 ft.

 

[Ambrus]

The Gudwulf warrior is about to draw his arrow back to fire when he suddenly spots the pair of concealed undead rats further back. Licking his lips hungrily Maelicent momentarily contemplates going ahead with his attack but then thinks better of it. The goblin is fairly certain he could eventually best the creatures but not without taking a few of bites in return and certainly not without using a good deal of the arrows in his quiver. Perhaps the old rotten tree was also just hoping for such an opportunity to try slaying the lone weakened goblin.

The concealed warrior sneers; it seems that most of the creatures he'd been fighting during the past week were proving to be inedible; first demon-spiders, then the stony cave-teeth and now monstrous rotting skeletal rats. It was enough to drive even the most patient goblin red with rage...

Cautiously, Maelicent turns and begins slowly creeping away from the obvious ambush site back the way he'd come. On the way back to the cave the goblin will try to hunt for some deadfall branches.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Maelicent turns and creeps off from whence he came. The carnivorous skeletal rats seem not to take heed of his leaving. Once again, the trees move to open a path for him, but this time it seems they cloister the wall, shrouding it from sight. In full view of the goblin, the older oaks draw themselves against the wall while thick limbs loom heavily overhead, seeming to wait for prey to venture near. The burl of the trees' bark shifts and casts ghoulish shadows in the deep of the night moon's shadows. Where earlier the path had been laid neatly before him, the way ahead now takes unfamiliar twists and turns and the terrain proves slower going. A quick as a path forms in front, it closes behind, shutting off retreat.

[sblock=Maelicent]Maelicent's rolled a 22 on a Survival check. He knows the way he needs to go but the trees have moved to block him. He can try to press through the wood by staying near the curtain wall, but (if he's got a weapon on him other than a bow and arrow) will probably end up needing to slice and dice his way through. The trees are opening up another path, one that heads into the heart of the forest, which Maelicent knows is a risky place to tread, particularly at night. If you can think of other options as to what to have him do, go for it. Likewise, if I can clarify what's going on, drop a line in the OOC.[/sblock]

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Gamad lights then magically lifts and moves Brakkus's lantern, situation it on the opposite side of the mouth of the tunnel at the back of the cave. At the appearance of light, all noise ceases. The dragging sound stops. Long moments tick by until at last the silence is replaced by the sound of snuffling. Something a goodly ways down the tunnel sniffs the air in a loud fashion.

 

[Voadam]

When the lantern lights and floods the chamber with illumination the sleeping Voadam wakens. He rises, looking around and listening, trying to ascertain the situation. Voadam notes Gamad and Brakkus are up and hears the snuffling sound.

 

[SlagMortar]

Brakkus grabs his guisarme and slings his tower shield onto his back as Gamad wakes him. As nothing leaps immediately out of the darkness, he begins hastily donning his armor.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Brakkus begins donning his armor. Experience has been a good if sometimes unkind teacher over the years; the strongarm soldier knows that putting his scale mail on in the correct order and properly buckling the pieces will take 4 minutes, half that if aided. The mail can be hastily donned at slight protective detriment to the wearer. Hastily donning the scale mail will take 1 minute.

You could also go for hastily donning it with aid, which would be -1 to AC and take 5 rounds.

As Brakkus grapples with his armor and no malevolent being immediately springs forth from the tunnel, Gamad and Voadam pay keen attention to the sounds. For the moment, whatever it is remains at a distance, cannot be heard to creep closer, and continues to sniff loudly at the air. When bits of Brakkus's scale mail clank in the dank cavern air and echo down the tunnel, the sniffing abruptly stops and is replaced with the same queer sound of something heavy dragging on the dirt floor that Gamad heard earlier. Chev remains contentedly snoring away in the lantern-lit cavern.

 

[Ambrus]

Maelicent looks towards the line of trees in his path and mutters. "By tha Maw. What the Hells be yer damned problem?" The Gudwulf warrior slowly turns in a circle, looking and listening, as if expecting an answer to be forthcoming (spot & listen +7). Finally turning back to the line of trees before him the goblin sneers and settles his bundle of wood onto the ground at his feet. "Ya wanna be startin something? Aright."

Assuming nothing else immediately occurs, the Gudwulf warrior remains peery of the hostile forest around him (spot & listen +7), but sets to work building a fire with his handaxe and flint & steel while collecting even more deadfall from the immediate area (Survival +7). Once the fire starts to catch, Maelicent sets to work. Using a dagger from his boot and a spare sack from his pack, Maelicent cuts a series of long thin cloth strips. Again with his knife the goblin next creates a pile of small thin wood shavings, bits of dried grass and charcoal from the fire. Mixing them together and separating them into bundles, the Gudwulf warrior next pulls out ten arrows from his quiver and sets about attaching each bundle behind the head of each arrow by means of wrapping and twinning the long strips of cloth around the haft until a sizable ball of ignitable tinder is created.

While rummaging through his pack the goblin pauses to pick up and examine the odd telescoping pole and the half-dozen wands he'd pilfered from the mongrels' burrow, wondering how he might make use of their mysterious magic.