Return to Northmoor IC

[pathfinderq1]

Aiffe helped nudge her canoe in towards the stern of the stuck raft, now that they knew the situation. She looked around the crew of the raft, setting each of the crew members' faces in her mind, trying to remember which of them she knew from previous meetings or by reputation.

Once they had taken stock of things, it was time to get to work- with both crews working together, they ought to be able the wrestle the raft off the sandbar, but it would take some serious effort. For her own part, Aiffe knew that hard physical labor was not her strong suit, so she tried to put her brain to work...

She stepped over to the side of the raft, and looked both upriver and down, trying to get a sense of where the sandbar had the strongest grip, and how the current was pushing. She tried to remember the lessons that MacLynn had been giving her in river navigation, factoring in what she could see of this specific situation.

OOC: Skill challenge, round 1; attempting to use Nature, as a knowledge roll factoring in both general river navigation,and the specific natural elements of this problem; Skill is at +6, roll 13; link Roll Lookup ; failure, but hopefully not bad enough to drown anybody. Next?

 

[Sparky]

Orthanach says a prayer for the departed. Maeger was unlikely to have skipped that necessity, but it couldn't hurt. The young man makes a warding sign over his heart.

He rubs at his palms, the itching feeling persists, though the crew seems fit enough.

When its clear that all that would be required of him is hard labor, Orthanach bends to the work. Years of cutting peat attuned his body to mind-numbing labor. And numb his mind it did. Where Aiffe summons her intellect, Orthanach draws on strength and stubbornness. It is not a delicate balance or an nuanced reading of the currents, Orthanach's efforts are a controlled, sustained rage that borders on the bestial.

He shoves a barge pole deep into the bank where the others have shown. He shoves until his hands ache and his arms shake and his legs take fire. As fire seeks fire, a deep well of anger ignites in the young man - quite untempered by his quiet faith - and fuels his strength. His jaws clench, lips peeling back from teeth in a rictus of effort.

[sblock=OOC]Skill Challenge Round 1: Endurance check for Orthanach[/sblock]

 

[Redclaw]

Dive right in, lads, Breccan says with a smile. Nobody's getting out of this with clean boots. With that, he jumps into the shallow water around the sandbar and grabs hold of the raft. Despite his attempts to muscle the large craft loose, he fails to get it to so much as budge.

[sblock=ooc] Athletics 15
[/sblock]

 

[Lukeworm]

Cian

As Meager and Mclynn exchange tales about the encounters with the bandits Cian visibly relaxes, there will be no more fighting this day.

“Sorry about your departed men” he tells Meager” I’m sure they were good men who gave as much as they got. You must have softened those bandits pretty good yesterday or it would have been tougher for us when we run in to them. As it was the lads and lass here gave them hell when they attacked the Cat. Then I got on deck and they all run to their holes like the rats that they are. It all means we are fresh and ready to help.” With a hearty laugh Cian jumps to the raft side “Come on lads Breccan can’t do it all by himslef”.

OOC:​

Diplomacy check to encourage the crew of the other raft 1d20+8=16 not that good…

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

The tone on the stranded raft changes quickly when the crew of the Blackwater Cat throw their lot in with the remaining raftmen on the Rose. Morale increases almost instantly, and everyone seems to get an extra level of hustle.

[SBLOCK=OOC]Damn! Those are really terrible rolls! You all need new dice. Remember, I will be giving secret bonuses for narrative excellence, so don't get discouraged by evil dice. Besides, the consequences of failure aren't too terrible. A few masochists might even like it better . Hope everyone's holidays have been just what they wished for. [/SBLOCK]

 

[Atanatotatos]

Culhwych has put away his bow and, instead of getting to help by the raft, he walks quietly up a tall mound nearby. There he stands, hand covering his eyes from the sun, and observes the river, back and forth. Culwych is the member of the crew that spends the most time watching the waters flow. He's almost always on watch duty, and has maybe the best eyesight of the party. And obviously, an archer is as good as his eyes are.
So he always watched the river and the whereabouts. And though he was no sailor, he got used to the currents, to the slow flowing. And now he was trying to find the exact way the river was flowing around the raft. Maybe he'd find the way to free it more easily and put it right back on its way.

[size=-2]OOC:Nature Roll Lookup, phew![/size]

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

Culhwych notices that a slight eddy just behind the raft is pulling the boat in the opposite direction than the one that everyone is pushing. The silt being churned up when the men struggle in the front of the raft drifts back underneath it, to swirl slightly and then get pulled into the current in the center of the river. A slight change in tactics could lead to better results.

[SBLOCK=OOC]Nothing much mechanical here, just fluffing the non-standard skill success of Culhwych. [/SBLOCK]

 

[pathfinderq1]

Aiffe knew she was missing _something_ about how the current was working to keep the boat pinned- it was only when she noticed how Culhwych was watching the water on both sides of the boat from his better vantage point that she realized just what she had missed.

With everyone else working, she looked around to see how else she might help out. Grabbing one of the heavy bargepoles, she dug in under the back corner. Already aware of her lack of mass and upper-body strength, she tried to put her training as a dancer to use, leaning out from the boat's edge well past a safe point- and sure enough the pole slipped in her grasp, just at a critical moment. It was only her practiced agility that kept her from ending up in the river, and even so her recovery was clumsy enough to draw glares or patronizing chuckles...

OOC: Skill challenge, round 2; using Acrobatics +7 for another miserable failure; roll Roll Lookup

 

[Lukeworm]

Cian can barely hide his chuckles at Aiffe’s effort. “The idea is to use the pole to push the raft not the other way around Aiffe. Here let me try.” He gives a hearty shove and notice with satisfaction that the raft seemed to move a little closer toward the main chanel.
“May grandfather used to say that the only way to deal with a hard task is to try harder, and he should know as nothing ever came easy for him. Now let’s try together!”
​

OOC: Athletics check 1d20+8=24.

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

The raft shifts slightly at the mighty shove from Cian. It settles back to where it sat before, but the initial movement draws mutters of satisfaction at the effort. The raft will move, it just might take a little extra effort.

The sun suddenly sneaks behind a cloud. The absence of the sun and the slight breeze combine to create sudden a feeling of chill. Not unusual this time of year, but being in the water has made this chill rather uncomfortable. Everyone is reminded that it will be nice to get this raft out of the muck, and the thought occurs to you that working harder might be the only way to keep the chill off right now.

Though working harder might not be the only, or even best way to get the raft moving down river.

[SBLOCK=OOC]I count 4 successes, and about halfway through the encounter.[/SBLOCK]