Six From Gate Pass - Chapter 3: Shelter From The Storm

[digimattic]

As the Blackscale lizard falls in a heap before him and adrenaline pumps through his body, the cloud of sleep that shrouded Arnir's mind falls away and he realizes the peril he's in. Looking wildly behind him with his long black hair unkempt and in his eyes, he sees the advancing lizardmen and quickly decides to put distance between him and them. Taking a 5-foot-step back to L13, Arnir begins to chant and as he extends his hands, his fingertips begin to crackle and glow. Suddenly, blinding arcs of electricity course out in a fan in front of him(M12-M9 & M12-O12), illuminating his fine features revealing a look of stony determination.

 

[Gregor]

The lizardfolk are able to dodge most of the arcane energies dispensed by Arnir. However, many of the crackling arcs of electricity still manage to strike flesh, rending scales and scorching the wounds. Arnir's spell, combined with the previous damage done by Hrimr, is enough to slaughter the three lizardfolk who topple to the ground with a groan, sizzling and smoking in the night air.

GM: Lizardfolk at L11 is the only target left on the map

 

[Bannock]

Bannock swivels to face the remaining lizardman and rushes forward past Lars (M-13) to strike. His glaive flashes out in front of him, now stained with blood without the help of any enchantment.

 

[Gregor]

Combat Over

Bannock, your glaive stabs the remaining enemy squarely in the skull. Meat, chunks of bone and brain matter explode outwards in a torrent of blood as your blade cleaves its head in twain. Twitching violently, the corpse falls to the ground.

The party looks around, making sure there are no more enemies lurking in the shadows. After a few moments, you realize that the only sounds you hear are the heavy breaths of your friends, the soft crackling of the fire and the drizzle landing in nearby pools of water. You are once again alone.

 

[The Bashar]

Hrimr walks over to Bannock.

"Let me have a look at that. You took a nice hit let me help with that."

Hrimr chants and his hand illuminates with a warm light. He touches Bannock's wound and it begins to heal.

"You said the archers may have poison. Let me check out the wound the arrow made."

 

[fromage67]

Lars walks over to the large lizard man and pulls out his illuminated dagger. He wipes it on some wet grass, and then declares, "Looks like the swamp is inhabited. Great. Might be tough going."

Lars makes a large circuit around the camp, using his dagger-torch to see by.

 

[Gregor]

[sblock="for Bannock"]On your next post, don't forget your second save vs. the poison.[/sblock]

[sblock="for Hrimr"]You inspect Bannock's wounds, but find no evidence of poison.[/sblock]

Lars, and whoever else accompanies him, walks around the camp and rummages through the crude packs and satchels that the lizardmen carried with them. Asides from their weapons (two small shortbows, 6 small arrows, four clubs and four tortoise shell shields, large sized great club) you find nothing of interest beyond half-eaten hunks of meat, and the occasional trinket formed from carved bones. However, on the large black scaled one, you discover a number of interesting items in its raw-hide pack: 3 small ingots of gold (about 3 pounds each) bearing the seal of Ragesia, a silver tankard, 5 pounds of salt formed into bricks, maps of the swamp in various states of decay, 2 sunrods, a set of iron manacles, 6 empty glass vials, an inkpen, a pint of oil and a flask of what smells like extremely strong malt.

 

[fromage67]

Lars whistles in amazement when the ingots of gold are revealed. "Ragesian gold, in a lizardman's backpack, half a continent away. Probably not a coincidence. Anyways, we are already more than compensated for the boats."

Lars briefly looks at the maps, but gives up. "Maybe Arnir or Hrimr can amake sense of these."

 

[Bannock]

Bannock feels another noxious feeling come on, but it quickly passes.

"Hmm, I thought I felt something queer after that arrow stuck me, but maybe I'm just catching cold out 'ere," he says as he goes over his wounds. His ribs ache where the huge lizard warrior found his mark with his great club. "Ow. Bastard. Now I've gotta hammer my armor straight."

He thanks Hrimr for the healing and removes his dented breastplate. He inspects items carried by their dead assailants. Seeing the manacles, he remarks, "Maybe they were s'posed to take at least one of us alive, like." Then he picks up the flask and uncorks it. The smell knocks his eyebrows halfway to his hairline. He plugs it again and tosses it to Hrimr.

"That's either the strongest moonshine I ever smelled, or something even worse. Could still be I was right about that poison."

 

[Gregor]

Torrent takes a quick look at the maps. "They look like the ones we bought in Vidor," she says, "maybe they took them off some other refugees trying to get through the swamp?"

"Probably." says Diashan, "I've never heard of lizardfolk being literate, using currency or alchemical goods and any of that other stuff in that sack. Odds are these beasts have been preying on those desperate enough to venture through the swamp and have picked up whatever looked shiny and interesting."

With that, Diashan heads back to resume his post on the watch and Torrent heads back to sleep.