Water looks at the rest of his team mates; his
senses recovering a tiny bit faster than most of
the others.
In what direction is this Hill?
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Water looks at the rest of his team mates; his
senses recovering a tiny bit faster than most of
the others.
In what direction is this Hill?
James blinked, and recovered soon after.
"That... was abrupt."
After a few moments more, he looks around, and soon realizes their predicament, as they stand in a forest.
He looks around, trying to ascertain the gradient of the ground, hoping that might be enough to tell them the direction to the fort.
"Well, let's get going, then. Anyone see anything?"
Spoiler: Roll[roll0] Spot
EDIT: Ooh, yay.
The whole team immediately scan the surroundings. From what you can see, there seems to be nothing that screams out of the ordinary, just trees and shrubs and little critters that pose no harm. The forest seems to extend as far as your eyes can see on all directions, and the light can barely pass through the foliage, but James and Gol or pretty much anyone can clearly notice the gradient of the terrain. If you are planning to head for the top of the hill, it would be easy to do so if you follow the gradient.
Spoiler: For those with 5 ranks or more in SurvivalThe gradient points the peak of the hill to be in the direction of the northwest.
James shakes his head.
"I'm afraid not, but the ground slopes up in that way, so if we're planning on attacking the fort, that's the way to go."
He points uphill.
Water was mostly unused to the concepts of slope and gradiants
the Plane of Water simply being an endless mass of water with
no concept of up or down.
He nods however accepting the answer of those more familiar
with this plane and replies.
Should we proceed with caution?
James smiles.
"Proceeding with caution is always a good idea. Especially when heading into the unknown. But first, a plan is needed, and I think we have one, so, assuming no one objects..."
James moves into the underbrush, swiftly vanishing from sight as he scouts ahead.
Spoiler: Rolls
[roll0] hide
[roll1] move silently
[roll2] listen
[roll3] spot
"All right, then."
Gol waits silently for James' return, watching for enemies in other directions.
Eugene
When introduced to their new teammate, Eugene bows with noble elegance and says, "I am Eugene DeChamlae at your service. This is my humble guardian Sir Stalwart." At this Sir Stalwart says, "A pleasure to make your acquaintance." in his monotone robotic voice.
Bereft of any time to make proper introductions or explain his strengths, Eugene instead focuses on the task at hand, he pulls out his pistols as he says, "Sir Stalwart, stay with Water and Gol, defend them. I will also scout ahead." That said, he heads forward into the foliage after James.
Spoiler: ChecksHide: [roll0]
Move Silently: [roll1]
Spot: [roll2]
Listen: [roll3]
Water looks at Gol, then at the metal thing...
Then at his teams scouts, with a defiant
huff of bubbles breaking through his body he
follows suit.
Spoiler
Shift another 2 Str to Dex.
[roll0] Hide
[roll1] Move Silently
Although clearly very capable of hiding and moving
with silent grace his afront at being left behind
is clearly impacting on his performance.
James decides to scout ahead, with Eugene and Water following behind him. The forest is is quite dense, but generally has enough room for three people to walk abreast in most places. For something man-made, it is quite convincing, complete with insects and fallen trees and mushrooms and lichens and all that. Enough to probably make you ask how they did it.
You follow the direction of what seems to be going uphill, and for about a minute or so, you don't encounter anything at all. Suddenly, you all hear a scraping sound coming from up ahead. Slowly, you creep forward, going from tree to tree. After a few yards, you spot the source of the sound.
About thirty feet from you, you see a large, ape-like creature with blue hair walking from the left side of your field of vision. As he walks into view, you notice it is dragging something, which is what is producing the scraping sound. The creature utters low guttural sounds as it walks by, crossing your path in a perpendicular manner. It does not seem to have noticed you yet.
Spoiler: OOCYou get a surprise round, if you decide to attack.
Spoiler: DC 18 ArcanaThe creature is a Gambol, large magical beasts that are carnivorous cousins of the ape. They are fiercely territorial marauders, obsessively prowling the jungle, attacking anything that enters the area they claim. They are particularly agile and hard to hit from a distance, and can cover great distances when jumping.
"Or we don't have any scouts, I suppose," Gol grumbles as he follows everyone else, still watching behind the group.
Spoiler: Rolls
Hide: [roll0]
Move Silently: [roll1]
Eugene
AC 22 (After surprise round)
HP 60/60
Remaining silent, Eugene recognizes the creature from a half remembered lecture long ago. Instantly he is on the defensive, gathering magical energies into a shield while hoping the Gambol moves on and doesn't notice the trespassers in it's territory.
Spoiler: Surprise RoundMana Manipulation: Mage Armor +4 to AC
Readying his bow for the chance of being discovered, James pauses, meaning to wait for the creature to pass, before continuing, hoping to provide a more complete view of the defenses in place.
Let's just see if we can avoid this fellow. He seems like he should be simple enough to evade.
The creature continues to walk on while dragging what seems to be the carcass of some animal, or more exactly, the lower half of it. You collectively hold your breaths as you decide to let it walk past you, electing to avoid conflict at this point.
The simian-like beast is almost out of your sight when suddenly it stops. It brings its head to face towards your direction, scanning. It does so for a few heartbeats before deciding to go on and continue walking past. After a few more heartbeats, its large body is completely hidden by the trees and the rustling sound slowly recedes to a whisper until it is barely audible.
James relaxes, slightly, ending his draw on his bow, even as he waits those few more seconds, before he continues moving forward, wanting to get a better idea of what they were up against.
Water shrinks down to Small and this is first time
his fellow team mates have seen him able to do
alter his size.
We should proceed?
James shakes his head in exasperation as the water elemental speaks, making an exaggerated motion, bringing his finger to his lips, in the gesture for silence, before he signs.
When scouting, speaking is not a good idea. What your allies can hear, your enemies hear too. We need to find the enemies main concentration, and survey it, before returning. One guard... isn't what we need to know.
Your group continues forward, following the straight path uphill. You do not encounter any more of the simian creature or any hostile creature and you make good time through the forest.
After quite some time, you notice the sunlight is even brighter up ahead. Slowly, the trees of the forest have given way to a clearing, a sort of wetland that extends to the right and all the way to the top. To the left, about a hundred yards from your position, the forest continues up hill, up about until the top.
Up above, about a few hundred yards or so, you can see the top of the hill. At the top stands a wooden structure that seems to be the fort, with wooden palisades and what seems to be a watchtower.
From his hiding spot, James examines the fortress, wondering what he could see.
[roll0] Spot
Gol catches up with everyone else, and whispers - "So what happened to 'scouting ahead,' then? If everyone but me and the Sir are back there, that's just splitting up. No point in that."
"So, that's it, then. Whoever goes through there gets seen, unless you can be a flat enough puddle, Water. And we can't really afford to wait for someone else to try it... slow, or sprinting?"
Water looks at Gol,
I could make a morph of you, and walk it in...
It should provide an adequate distraction, and trigger any traps.
We would also gain valuable information by observing, and I can
take its place should assuming its place be a good option...
This is the most Water has ever said in one go, it is all very difficult
to take in.
From this distance, you can vaguely see some people at the fort, one in particular standing watch at the watchtower. It doesn't seem there is any commotion yet, meaning the other groups haven't arrived there yet. Or maybe just lying in wait.
Eugene
"Hmm..." Eugene thinks as he sees the watchtower in the distance, "We move in just a bit closer and I can try my hand at taking out that watchtower... From here it would just be a bunch of potshots though."
Eugene looks to where the forest continues moving up the hill, "We could try approaching from that direction... but something in my gut tells me that section of woods will have something nasty in it... Otherwise why not clear the forest completely so no one can make a stealthy approach up to the fort?" Eugene also takes a look at the wetlands and asks Water, "Is that wet enough for you to hide in? Or can you tell how deep it is, or if there are any waterways in it that lead up to the fort? You and Sir Stalwart both could approach stealthily from beneath the water, but there needs to be enough to cover you both..."
Eventually Eugene just shakes his head and says, "I could always just lay down here and start shooting at the guard, but then what if one of the other teams uses my hard work to take the fort while we are down here? There is no help for it. We need to get closer, which means either braving the forest, the open ground, or the wetlands."
Water puts his hand on Eugene, it is very strange
and not something water has ever done before...
He feels wet to the touch, but when he removes
his hand Eugene is not wet... it is most strange.
It is also very strange looking down at the
member of his team that usually towered above
him.
I could also make you all able to exist within the
safety of the water safely, as I do.
If you do not wish to directly assault the fort we could
lie in wait within the depths of the water and attempt to
take... "potshots?"
I could go and check the wetlands?... I am the quickest
and perhaps the quietest and most descrete...
Water waits for confirmation from his team; if they seem
to think it is a good idea he will make a trip to the water
and back in half moves.
Spoiler[roll0] Hide
[roll1] Move S
Considering the situation, James shakes his head.
"I think we want to wait for a few minutes, and keep alert. We don't want to be the first group attacking, as we want the chance to move in, and clean up. Certainly, check to see if the water is usable, but, otherwise, let's lay low until someone else makes their move."
"Unless the others are faster and already in there... yes, Water scouting but otherwise waiting sounds good."
"I think we would have heard something, in that case."
Spoiler: WaterWith everyone's approval, Water slowly inches forward beyond the tree line and out onto the wetlands. After a few feet of grass, he arrives at the wet part. As he steps into the water, he discovers it is not that deep, about half a foot on the average. After covering a few tens of yards, he discovers the condition to be more or less similar all the way up. Another thing he finds out though, is that at the parts where there is almost no water, the wet earth is so soft that it makes for movement across the area a bit more difficult than normal. With that, he turns around back to his group as slowly and as carefully as he went.
OOC:
The whole wetlands is difficult terrain. It stretches, with the rest of the group as reference, about 400 to 500 yards up to the fort, about 100 yards to the west where it is once more bounded by the forest, and as far as you can see until the curvature of the hill to the east.
Water returns to the group;
The water is very shallow, there is no room to swim.