(PF) maggie's Rise of the Runelords: Hook Mountain Massacre IC

[maggie_mcknife]

Red

"Thank you." Glad to back on dry land and feeling rather foolish at having jumped in like that, Red whispers to her friend over the faint blush of shame spreading across her cheeks, giving Rico an appreciative pat on her extra-large knuckles. Orders to loot the turtle were good too. She would have something to do and wouldn't have to talk to Se- the others. About being a silly bugger.

Trying ineffectually to wring some of the water out of her sodden sleeves, Red shuffles over to where the turtle's carcass lies. It looked a little smaller without its head, somehow. Still, there was work to be done. And this was what kukris were meant to do anyway. Pity about the mess she'd make, but nothing a rinse with soap in a cleaner part of the river wouldn't take care of.

*****

GM post

At her current prodigious size, it is only a matter of minutes before Rico has successfully cracked open the turtle's shell around its harpoon wounds like a walnut, spilling pink muscle and tangled, steaming viscera. Plunging her hands into its cavernous belly halfway up the elbow, it takes some rooting around before she finds and hauls out the wobbling jelly of the turtle's stomach.

The turtle's bloated stomach could easily accommodate half a dozen large cows. Slicing a ragged hole open in the lining causes a wet, sour stench to erupt into the air, the organ spilling forth a massive mulch of half-digested plant-weed and fish that quickly piles higher than Brin is tall. Some stirring of the nauseating pulpy mess, however, does yield what Rico had been looking for - a disembodied hand of some large humanoid, swaddled in leather bindings that have shielded it from being digested so quickly. Most of the hand has already been dissolved down to the bone, though at least two fingers still show the chipped blackened nails and so much matted hair growing on the sallow knuckles that one might have mistaken it for fur.

Meanwhile, Red pauses in the midst of hacking the harpoons out of the turtle's side to hand over the scrap of crimson rag tied to one of the spears. The rag seems to have been torn from what feels like the remnants of some travelling cloak and is adorned with a single black rune, crudely stitched on with what looks a lot like dried animal gut.

Heal DC 18

Spoiler

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This hand has probably been marinating in the turtle's stomach for several days, at least. Difficult to tell exactly how long it's been in there for though.

Knowledge (local) DC 15

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That's definitely not a goblin hand. Judging from the size - it's big enough to grab hold on any of your heads like an orange to crush at leisure - this had to come from something big. Like a troll, ogre, or giant.

Linguistics DC 18 / Knowledge (local) DC 20

Spoiler

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The rune vaguely resembles Thassilonian writing and it is from this clue that you make your deduction - this rune is from the Giant language, representing the sound 'krig', which translate to 'war'.