Taka will help Coldtree. Although he does not have a missile weapon, he intends to stand behind the hole / entrance, and stab one of the critters from behind as it rushes out to flee the smoke.
Lunnaya Tehn fairs a bit better than the other two from being sprayed in the face. Maybe is was luck, as the Centrin people would say, but the Amiradthae did not believe in such. Tehn figures it was because he was not bending over. It only takes two minutes for his head to clear and to manipulate chemical way lines to remove the foul odor.
He looks over at his two friends who are still retching and convulsing and still would be for several more minutes if he did not intervene. Briefly touching each of the other men on the shoulder, they immediately stand tall and breath clearly. It takes a second or two for them to realize that they do not stink like skunk spray.
"I do that little trick sometimes when the meat I am to cook does not smell quite the way I think it ought to. I never imagined it would clear your heads as well."
OOC:
GM NOTE: Look at Rearrangement under Chemical Tasks under Basic Tasks.
Taka takes his sword a hacks down a nearby sapling, sharpening the end into a spear. After applying a single effort to heat the pile, he takes a position in front of the entrance.
Kwargrow said:
(Coldtree) puts a friendly hand on Tehn's shoulder, "And just to be clear, yes I think we should do this right now."
Tehn gives the man a wry look, shakes his head, and rolls his eyes. He cannot image what Coldtree might have been thinking to make such a clarification.
Kwargrow said:
Coldtree will help with fire prep and then take a position so he can shoot his bow easily at where the skunks will come out.
Coldtree applies a single effort to heat the den then takes a position to best shoot at an exiting skunk without putting Taka in the line of fire.
Tehn responds to Coldtree in broken Hebrian. "I think this is bad, but here go fire."
He lays his hands on the debris and heats it for a second time, like the others. The pile quickly begins to smoke, having been dried some from the previous heating, but the skunks do not emerge. He takes a deep breath and heats the pile again. It promptly bursts into flame. The two skunks bolt from the opening at a full run. The fire roars skyward, igniting a nearby brush, which in turn ignites an overhanging tree. Tehn frantically begins to try to extinguish the flame. He spits out something in Amiradthan, "kakoy besporyadok. ya znal chto eto plokhaya ideya!"
Coldtree reacts instantaneously. He manages to fire an arrow as the first animal clears the hole. The arrow strikes true but the hide of the damnable varmint protects it from harm. Taka cannot manage to react quickly enough to bring his make-shift spear into play. Before Coldtree and draw and fire a second time, the two skunks have disappeared into the surrounding brush.
In the mean time, Tehn is panting heavily, trying to keep the whole side of the mountain from going up in flame. Having spent his entire ability to manipulate thermal way lines, he is down to fighting the flames with his feet and a stick. As soon as Coldtree and Taka turn and see the pending disaster, they ply and spend their own talent to combat the flames.
The three manage to contain the fire and extinguish the flames after are of about 16 square paces has been burned. Drinking from their water flasks, the three take rest upon some boulders, when a few of the miners from town walk into view, carrying tools suitable for fire fighting. Seeing that the fire has already been contained, one of the Maldrog jibes in Orngaddrin, "Well, did you get the offending varmint?"
Taka replies, in fluent Orngaddrin, "They got away; they were much faster than we expected. I'd bet they could even outrun you,"Taka jibes back, in a good-natured way.
Taka sheathes his sword, and starts looking around, trying to find tracks, hoping to get an idea of where the critters got off to.
Coldtree shrugs at the Maldrog. "The important thing is that the skunks won't be back." He will pull apart the den to make sure there is no place for the varmints, or anything else, to nest in again.
Tehn picks up a small stone and throws it at the mouthy fellow, hitting him, harmlessly, in the chest.
The Maldrog, who is built like a tree trunk or a boulder, laughs heartily. The Maldrog, as a whole, are good-natured, pranksters. "das war ein Witz, Manner!"
He laughs again and says in Orngaddrin, "I was making a joke at your expense. Lighten up!"
With the similarity in the two languages the three men suspect that two different things were said, but none can be certain of it.
Taka has an idea: "What if we set a trap for them? We could lay out several snares, with some pieces of meat as the bait. Once they can't run away, killing them will be easy enough. What say the rest of you?'
Since the fire had been contained, the miners help pull apart the burnt remains of the varmint den. Tehn assist Taka in looking for signs of departure for the stinking pests. The mountainside is profuse with the passage of small animals and various game trails. At this short tenure, the two quickly realize that they will not find a definitive trail. The miners return to town, leaving the three to discuss things among themselves.
Tehn uses some vegetation to wipe some of the suet from his face and arms. He generally resorts to Orngaddrin when speaking with others, not being nearly as proficient with Hebrian. "Well friends, I do not think I am ready to jump from a cliff just yet. Do you want to look into this spider problem next?"
Coldtree ignores the Maldrog since he feels anything he says will be taken in a bad context. To Taka he says, "I thought about using some meat for bait, but that would waste even more food and we don't even know if it will catch the thieves we are after. The den is destroyed and the skunks escaped us, so maybe they will look for an easier life elsewhere. Too bad, because I really wanted some new gloves. I vote that we investigate the spider problem, and if we hear about more meat being stolen we can come back to this issue."
Chalking up the misadventure with the skunks to whatever belief system satisfies each man, the three quit the burnt area and return to town. Some of the Maldrog miners, always the pranksters, make jokes about the coverage of suet, but all is intended in good nature; and after a few retorts back about food and banadaging, the jokers leave off.
After a night's rest and some washing, a brief discussion with Migdon reveals that he has not been back to shaft 2, after seeing such a large spider. Carrying some dried meat and refreshing their water supplies, the three head westward out of the pass, then turn south at the lower elevation to bring them to the entrance of the beneficial iron producing shaft 2. It is really more of a straight mine than a shaft, since it bores horizontally into the mountain face, but the Orngaddrin tend to call every mine a shaft.
Sure enough, sitting contentedly in the mouth of its newly confiscated home, is a huge brownish spider. The fine hairs on its body twitch and the multiple eyes on its head rove in wary vigilance. It seems there will be no way sneak up on the thing.
Coldtree nocks an arrow to his bow and nods to let the others have time to get in position. If he goes before the spider, he will shoot at it. If the spider closes to melee before he can get a shot off, he will drop the bow and use his hands.
