DC's Legacy of Fire II [IC]

[shugyosha]

Vikcara

Darkness was not her friend. She really couldn't see well. Instead she finds someone else with a range weapon and casts light on their projectile.

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I'm not sure who is armed with what but she is casting light on whoever's arrow or bolt. Hopefully this will light up the area.

[Frivolous]

Grace

Grace draws another arrow from her quiver and says softly, sounding worried and fearful, "Is it dead?"

"Dashki, how many are there usually? Do they travel in packs?"

She doesn't move, yet. The goat doesn't sound like it's going to die anytime soon, and there might be more pugwampis around.

Actions

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Readying to loose an arrow at any threat that pops up.

[Down Comforter]

Dashki stays crouched behind you, a bow in hand. He tilts his head and mumbles quietly to himself before looking up at you. "In this sort of place? Could be a group of over a dozen, but the little fire we had back at camp makes me think it's only one or two. More would have caused more damage or been noticed."

[Frivolous]

Grace


Grace nods to Dashki and keeps looking into the darkness for further pugwampis and listening to the goat panic. The sound seems to be really getting on her nerves, because she sounds agitated as she speaks a few moments later.

"I have to go get the goat. And the pugwampi's body."

"If any other spring up, kill it. Just please don't hurt me, too."

Grace hangs up her bow. She hangs up her buckler so it does not encumber her. She gently tosses the arrow Vikcara made glow with Light towards the pugwampi's corpse.

Then she draws her scimitar and begins very carefully moving through and around the cacti towards the goat and the corpse. Her face is already taut and perspiring from anticipation of the pain of being pricked.

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Armor class penalty is only -1 from her studded leather armor since Grace is not using her buckler at the moment.

Acrobatics: (1d20+2)[6]

[Down Comforter]

Grace attempts to navigate the cacti field, but roughly halfway to the goat, her blade catches on an unseen bit of foliage and when she pulls it free she stumbles into a cactus. Newly decorated in quills, she finds herself on a thin strip of land at the edge of a ravine.

A casual glance down the edge reveals a huge multi-armed, wickedly barbed cactus dominating the ground 10 feet below the ledge, almost directly below where the sad little goat Rombard has been lazily tied to a scrub bush.

The small goat seems to have a number of cactus quills stuck in him, but seems no worse for the wear. He walks in circles, jerking away from your approach.

OOC

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Grace takes one point of damage from stumbling into a cactus.

[Frivolous]

Grace

Grace cries out in pain, "Ow, ow!"

She grimaces and tries to maneuver her way past the remaining cacti. Then she sees how close she is to a cliff and the big cactus the goat is tied to. She shivers and steadfastly avoids peering over the edge.

"There's a cliff here! Your magic was a really good idea! If we'd drawn closer, we might have fallen over! I'm gonna tie a rope around myself so I don't fall!"

Grace sheathes her scimitar and takes out her 50 feet of silk rope. She fashions a crude lasso out of the rope and throws the large loop over a sturdy cactus at least 10 feet away from the edge.

She tugs hard as she can on the rope to see if it the knot she made is good and the cactus is well rooted.

Then she ties the rope securely around her own waist, but with plenty of rope still left so she can tie the goat as well.

Only then does she approach Rombard the goat, making soothing noises to calm it down and trying not to think about the cliff.

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Rolling for Handle Animal and Acrobatics. The latter is just in case two Acrobatics rolls are needed to get to the goat, not just one.

Handle Animal: (1d20+4)[11]

Acrobatics: (1d20+2)[6]

[Down Comforter]

Your knot feels strong as you approach little Rombard, but the goat moves away from you, hopping about and clearly frightened despite your efforts. The pugwampi rope around his neck, though clearly roughly made, is strong enough to keep the goat stuck to the cactus.

[Frivolous]

Grace


Grace grits her teeth and tries really really hard to get Rombard to calm down so she can cut the rope. She tries using his name.

"Rombard, Rombard, Rombie baby, calm down. I'm going to bring you back to mommy and daddy."

Frequently she glances over her shoulder in case another pugwampi tries to kill her.

She also glances towards the dead pugwampi to make sure it really is dead and doesn't spring up and try to kill her.

Handle Animal

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Take 10 on the Handle Animal check. Maybe saying his name gives a circumstance bonus?

If take 10 doesn't work, take 20. I don't see any time pressure.

[shugyosha]

Vikcara

She readies her crossbow and covers Grace's approach to the goat.

[Down Comforter]

At first, Grace doesn't seem to have any luck, but with some several minutes and a lot of coaxing the goat seems to calm down. It nuzzles at Grace's leg several times before laying down. Dashki appears from behind you and unpins the dead pugwampi from the cactus, holding it by the neck. He scans the cacti field before saying, "It seems this was the only one, damn good shot."

He makes his way back through the cacti and tosses the corpse to Krog, "There you go greenie, Almah will want to see the corpse." He scratches his stubbled chin, "We should get back before full dark, too many things out here that make the night their home."

[Starbin]

Since most of the excitement seemed over, Krog put his axe back across his back, ready to return to the camp. He waited for Grace to convince the goat to come back with them, rolling his eyes at what they had been reduced to doing.

However, when Dashki insults him yet again, tossing the dead pugwampi at him, he simply caught the body and threw it back. "Then feel free to take it back to your Lady." He waited until his companions were ready to go, then turned to leave. If they wanted to hunt sneaky midgets out in the dark, more power to them. He wasn't really sure that this solved anything, but maybe there were enough clues to satisfy their employers.

Besides, Krog wanted to get back soon. He needed a drink ...

[Down Comforter]

Dashki's catches the corpse awkwardly and grins, "Careful orc, for the these nights are dark and full of terrors." With that, Dashki begins trekking out into the dark, not waiting for the group.

[Frivolous]

Grace


Grace smiles and says mildly to Krog, "You didn't even check the body for belongings. It was a tool user; it might have had something valuable on it."

She begins retracing the path she took here, basically following Dashki.

She puts on her buckler and draws her scimitar again just in case. She pulls Rombard using her shield hand.

[shugyosha]

Vikcara

"Do you really think they started the fire?"

[Frivolous]

Grace


The ranger shrugs, "I don't know. The only one who knew for sure is dead now."

Then Grace giggles a little at how excellently her arrow found its target even in the dim light, but then she frowns and feels bad for once again chortling over killing.

She wonders, though, if pugwampis even count in Sarenrae's eyes.

[Starbin]

Krog shrugged. "Dere footprints were all over the place ... unless Dashki planted those."

At Grace's comments, he glanced over at her. "You shot it ... I figured you'd search it if you thought it was carrying anything good."

[Frivolous]

Grace


"I had my hands full with the goat."

[Starbin]

Krog snorted. "Maybe you should've searched the goat.". But after they walked for a bit, he glanced back at the goat and Grace. "You know, as much as I enjoy getting my arse chewed, you may want to let your friend there 'wander' back into camp. Garavel was pretty pissed about us going after that thing ... might not be worth the effort to explain."

[Frivolous]

Grace


Grace nods. "Yes. That's smart. I'll take Rombard back to his mommy and daddy before we approach Garavel."

"I think the goat was meant to be bait for a trap, but that would be complicated to explain and not really too important."

[Starbin]

Krog walked on in silence. The problem with returning the goat meant that the owner's would be all about 'thanking the heroes' ... which would inevitably happen in front of Garavel. But he was done with this ridiculous waste of time ... and his flask was calling.

Trudging on, Krog kept an eye on the tracks back, making sure to keep them on the right path.

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If we can take 10 to track, Krog gets a 15 for Survival and a 17 for Perception

[shugyosha]

Krog shrugged. "Dere footprints were all over the place ... unless Dashki planted those."

"But was it their footprints?" she asks skeptically. "I'll tell her ladyship what we found," Vikcara says as she heads back to the main tent.

[Starbin]

"But was it their footprints?" she asks skeptically.

Krog rolled his eyes. "Are you not payin' attention? How do you think we found that thing? Its tracks were near the fortune-teller's tent ... then Grace found some more of them leadin' to the goat. If they ain't the same, you'll have to take it up with our tracker. Or Dip-sh*% up ahead."

[Down Comforter]

Finding your way back to camp was easier than finding the gremlin, as the lights of the campfires light up the night sky and you soon find yourself on the edge of the camp. Everyone seems to be starting to bed down for the night and the camp is growing quiet. As Vikcara heads to Almah's tent, Geso nods to you all, indicating that he will speak with Father Zastoran a bit before taking to his bunk for the night.

Vikcara

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The bodyguards nod as you approach and Dashki appears beside you, holding the body of the thing he calls a Pugwampi. On of the guards pulls aside the thick curtain for you and you see Almah and Garavel speaking with one another over some game you don't recognize.

[Starbin]

Once they were back to the camp, Krog watched the others scatter in different directions, all intent on some private mission. Shrugging, he wandered back over to the site they had originally claimed and slumped down onto his stump. Sighing, he took out a flask and took a long swig, the familiar burn of the liquor feeling good. After a few like swigs, he began to feel the warm numbness that slowly filtered through his limbs, both heightening and dulling his senses.

Glancing up at the stars, he wondered, not for the first time, what the boy he had killed would be doing now ...

[shugyosha]

Krog rolled his eyes. "Are you not payin' attention? How do you think we found that thing? Its tracks were near the fortune-teller's tent ... then Grace found some more of them leadin' to the goat. If they ain't the same, you'll have to take it up with our tracker. Or Dip-sh*% up ahead."

Vikcara

"I thought you were following the goat's tracks."

Once at the tent young Vikcara asks, "I beg your pardon your ladyship may we enter. We may have found the culprit to the fires."

[Frivolous]

Grace


Grace alternately cajoles and pulls Rombard towards the camel drivers.

"Here he is."

The excitement of the hunt and the battle has left Grace, and she is once again using as few words as possible."

[Down Comforter]

Grace

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"You've found him! You blessed girl, thank the sun!" Hadrod runs over and scoops up the small goat, who is braying happily. The happy pair wander off towards the animal pen, Hadrod cooing in the goats ear the whole way. Hadrah chuckles as her husband heads off, "You've done good, miss. If ye ever need assistance with animals of any sort, you let me know and we'll do our best to help you."

Vikcara

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Dashki lays out the corpse of the pugwampi on an empty table as you speak and Almah approaches it, looking the creature over. She studies it for several minutes, Garavel looking over her shoulder, before she nods. "There must be more of these creatures about and the Sultan's Claw is far too exposed. Only one of these creatures managed to cause this much havoc." She pauses and purses her lips, "There is a monastery to Sarenrae that stands near the village of Kelmarane. It would act as a far better base of operations for our coming work."

"You've done well, all of you. I'm prepared to offer each of you 200 gold pieces for your work in the investigation as well as for your aid in acquiring the monastery for our use. If this is acceptable, please communicate my desires to your fellows."

OOC

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Everyone gets 150xp each for the investigation and tracking down the Pugwampi, as well as another 100xp for rescuing Rombard for a total of 250xp. I'll update the OOC with your total.

[shugyosha]

Vikcara

I'm sure your generous offer will be accepted by my companions, m'lady.

[shugyosha]

Vikcara

If there is nothing else the young woman returns to her companions and reports their offer, "200 gold each if we help them secure the monastery. So what do you say?"

[Starbin]

Krog looked up from his flask as Vikcara and the others returned. Without much preamble, she said, "200 gold each if we help them secure the monastery. So what do you say?"

Peering at her for a moment, he thought, I thought bards were more talkative ... Aloud, he belched and grunted, "No."

If questioned, he simply shrugged. "You didn't say please. Or thanks. Screw 'em."

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C'mon ... he can't be too easy going! I mean, I've got a -2 to Charisma ... what's that? <checks sheet> Wait, I didn't dump my Chr? Hunh ... well, he's still not all that nice! What's that? Chaotic Good? Dammit, I thought he was CN! Well, he's still a drunk, so that means I get to play him as an a$$ sometimes!