Shadowflux Risen

[Annarrkkii]

Shael Greyswan

"He is no representative specimen of... my kind."

You hesitate in naming yourself 'elf,' do you not? You are less elf then you once were, Shael Greyswan, and you have become so much—

The elf grimaces and tugs his hat brim lower, withdrawing some from the conversation to consider.

Whatever the source of this ward is... what makes this grey elf so confident we can find it, or overcome his guardians?

Ah, you assume he expects you to survive. He spent little money in your expedition, and he has no vested interest in your surival. Perhaps the crystal has more effects than we were told. Perhaps it will relay to him that which we learn, whether your mortal compatriots die or live, and with that information he will send a better-prepared group? You are being used as pawns—

The elf would waste no resources in that fashion. He at least expects us to have a reasonable degree of success. But, if he cannot scry the island, how does he know what it holds? How does he know the source is a single item, and, if it is an item, that it can be moved at all?

Quite, Shael. But I believe that is not the most pressing issue on your mind, is it? I believe I am, aren't I? And more than in the literal sense...

The insidious chuckle caused Shael to grit his teeth and clench his hands into fists. The devil was right though. How would this flux device affect his relationship with the fiend in his head?

[Tyrel_Aurelian]

Darkstrider

Turning to Shael Gauran says in a gruff but still apologetic tone:

"I meant no offense to you or your race. I just cannot abide being deceived. While following his directives seems the most obvious and reasonable course, there is a not dismissable part of me that demands satisfaction. So, however unprudent it might be to attack that wizard, I will certainly think of something that will make him remember me for the rest of his miserable life!"

Cooling down a little, he turns to Fryst.

"Seems good to me. I'll take the rear then, at least as long as we are exploring in close quarters."

The Goliath sets to preparing for their leave.

[The_Snark]

Adur

Adur stares at the box in some consternation after the image vanishes. What kind of man must it take to send others into such a place without warning them more fully of the danger? What kind of man laughs at such, after? Perhaps this was not such a good idea... I have been away too long, he thinks ruefully. Far too late for second thoughts now. I am no judge of character anymore, it seems.

The mention of his name jolts him out of those thoughts, though he does glance at Yorkin and Jorme to see how they took the message. "I can keep a watch above. But if we are venturing under the tree line, it might not do us much good." Adur knows from experience that flying through a forest is no easy task at his size.

"Following water will lead us to something," he adds. "The air is more open there, and water always attracts other things. Mm. If that's what we want to find." He lapses again into silence, not sure if the others will want to search out the island's inhabitants or avoid them for now.

[Kahlynn]

Kahlynn

... stays silent as the image of the despicable mage informs them of their true situation, putting the last few stitches in the mended shirt, frowning in thought.
"Like it or not, we did agree to his terms, and breaking the terms would forswear us all. It seems our best hope is to trust in our gods, and in ourselves." She packs away her equipment carefully, handing over the vials of thick liquid to Fryst wrapped in padding. "Don't carry them too close to your skin; I've no idea how strong they've become."

[Avernaith]

Sparky

Sparky listens quietly as the conversation exchanges back and forth after the revealing of the mage's hidden agenda. He moves his eyes back and forth as the different party members speak, clearly following the thread of discussion. At Fryst's suggestion, he makes an enthusiastic nod and a quick thumbs up gesture before somberly affirming. "I'll be the lead scout. I'm pretty good at it and all. Plus I have a good chance of getting away if I fall into something bad. If that happens, I'll be dragging the bad stuff back to you, but will do my best to let you know what's coming."

He frowns slightly and motions to the churning surf as it floats up and down across the beach. "If it's all the same with you guys, I'd like to suggest we spend a little time this morning searching for any of our friends. If the Sea gave them up by mistake, we'd want to make sure they get back out to Her with the riptide. It'll go quicker if we all pitch in, and then we can head inland or whatever you guys decide." His voice drops to a quieter tone as he remarks "I just wanna make sure they get to their afterlife okay."

[AmoDman]

Eleberry Lockwidge

Lock makes a tsking sound at his fellows, "Why I was just commenting on how it was a bit rash to agree to that codgy old mage's terms before I got that message to play. Best accept your fate you lot, not much to do it about now...besides, why dwell on the past when we've got a whole interesting island no one's ever to have explored! Sure, the old man's a bastard, that's a done and given. But let's get moving...I want to see this forbidden piece real estate," he ends with a smile.

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OOC: Yes, real estate apparently is a term Lock knows, heh. And see my post in the OOC...I'm not sure if you guys want me to take a point. I can certainly hide myself, but should've put more emphasis on my spotting and listening skills...and Sparkster hasn't mentioned his opinion yet. I'd imagine he's got a decent Hide/MS as well as Spot/Listen...if not the spells to back them up .

[KuH]

Fryst

Fryst looks around at the team. "Excellent idea, Sparky, to search what is thrown up this morning."

"If we find water and head upstream at noon, most of the animals should be resting in any case, making the trip more relaxing, and allowing us to identify tracks so we know what is facing us before we face it."

He then turns back to Kahlynn. If you have an hour while the rest of us are searching the rubble to turn this concentrate into something even more potent, I would appreciate it. You never know when it will come in handy.

Fryst then turns, preening himself for a moment and stretching in the sunshine, looking closely around the camp, and then moving to cast his keen eyes across the waters and shoreline, helping the others search ... both for flotsam, and to see what other new and useful traces of life he can discover, or anything else about their new island home.

[PolkaBear]

Nivlan Kirk

Nivlan began searching the shore with the others for anything that might have washed up overnight. He had pretty well scoured the beach the night before, but the hyperkinetic halfling was right: it wouldn't do to leave the bodies of their former shipmates rotting in the sun or exposed to predators.

[Tyrel_Aurelian]

Darkstrider

Turning a 360 to take in all that offers a view of itself to him, Gauran makes no show of trying to hide his true feelings as he rumbles to Sparky:

"If you believe there will be another surge of corpses or loot from the clutches of the ocean we'll stay here for now. But I plainly must say that in my experience the sea is as forgiving a mistress as the mountains are forgiving masters, that is not - at - all. Following our goal seems more pressing to me. I am eager to leave this beach behind. It holds nothing for me..."

He lowers his head, for a short moment looking like a boy told to stand in the corner and be ashamed, despite his huge frame...

"I did not mean to disparage your hopes, Sparky. I am on edge, and my lacking training for coping group situations shows. I apologize. If you need me to haul something out of the sea, just call for me. I'll be around, making myself useful as a sentry."

Without awaiting the answer the Goliath turns around, leaving to go on patrol duty. A short sign to Fryst indicates his proposed pattern, saving any objections from the halfling he will take to patrolling the perimeter.

[Annarrkkii]

Shael Greyswan

Shael makes a few idle passes back and forth along the beach, but his attention seems largely elsewhere. His coat and shirt, graciously mended (?) by Kahlynn, are back on, and his hat is snugged as low as ever on his pale brow. Within its shade, his green eyes smolder with a contemplative flame as he dwells on all the possible ramifications of the Diviner's information.

After two passes up and down the local beachfront, he takes an absent glance up at the peak where the nocturnal beasts were sighted, and dons his swordbelt as a precautionary measure. Just in case.

[blue chicken]

The sun rises higher as the day wears on, the company spending the remaining hours of the morning combing the beach. Fryst, Adur, and Kahlynn busy themselves browsing in the tidal pools, searching for the ingredients to finish rendering Fryst's poison. Though the flora and fauna all seem vaguely related to specimens with which the nature-savvy indviduals know well, they, like the not-zargist from the previous evening, seem...changed. Or rather, unchanged, as though the creatures and plants the search uncovers have for some reason not developed the familiar details and features that would ordinarily mark them out to a skilled seeker. The searchers find what they seek nonetheless; between the three of them, it takes only a bit of conferring to single out specimens which fit their requirements and remove them from their watery environs.

Sparky, Gauran and the rest experience a less fruitful (and much grimmer) search, wandering the beaches for several hours with little sign of the missing companions they seek. Yorkin and Jorme join in as well, though after only a few hours the stolid sailor retires to the campsite, an expression of misery and rage hidden behind careful emotional constraints painted on his leathery face. After a short time, Yorkin rises again, seeming unable to just sit. He wanders off toward the cliffs as though looking for a way up. On the beach, just as the search begins to seem futile, Jorme gives a cry, running a few feet into the surf where something is bobbing gently. Picking it up, he examines it for a moment before turning and walking tiredly to shore. The find is quickly passed around and examined by the entire search party, and a brief explanation from Jorme is enough to dispel the mystery. Though any other members of the group would have likely taken the small wooden object for flotsam, Jorme's careful eyes spotted that with which he was intimately familiar - the handiwork of a friend and fellow sailor.

"I know it don' look like much, but...I don' think 'e was done with it, see. Old Salt...always carried a pouch o' hickory lathes with on every voyage, so as he could whittle on 'em when he had a spare moment. Wonderful craftsman...nothin' expensive, o' course, but...he had a knack for the wood."

Holding the small charm at arm's length, he points out the details with a finger that quivers ever so slightly, its movements mirroring the small fluctuations and tremors of grief in his voice.

"See here...there's the beak...and over here, you can see the sweep of a wing just comin' out of the woodwork...and then there's the bottom here, where he carved the spray n' foam from a wave washing in, and this piece above where he left the wood all natural. Looks to me like he was aimin' to make a necklace charm out of it. Maybe a pelican roostin' on a bit o' wood stickin' up out o' the water off the beach. Too rough to tell, but...it's his work."

He sniffles a few times before falling silent, holding the unfinished piece out again for any to take and examine more closely.

Meanwhile, at the fire, Kahlynn finishes her rendering, bottling up the two doses of the as-yet unnamed concoction she has brewed. Seawater, shrimp poison, and the juices of several unnamed anemones pulled from the submerged rocks offshore all blended together to form a thick, sickly, green conction. The purification processes have reduced the mixture's volume significantly, and once the vicious-looking fluid has cooled it fits neatly into two small glass vials. The healer-turned-apothecary then cleans her materials, rinsing her supplies and equipment carefully and throwing the remainder of the organic waste the process generated into the fire.

The sun continues to creep higher, and around noon Yorkin rejoins the group clustered around the campsite. Sweating visibly in the heat, he appears slightly pale, mopping his brow with a filthy sleeve before speaking.

"Well, lads and lassie, I don' know about you types, but I'm achin' for a drink o' good water. All the salt down here, and this sun, without any shade...dryin' me out like a clam caught above the tide line, if you catch my meanin'. I'd say that if you're all satisfied, the only thing for it is ta' do what we can ta' get up the cliffs, there. Gotta be water inland, with the island all rotten-smelling and sultry like it is. Where there's growth like this, you can bet your hide there's bound to be some kind o' river, or lake...somethin', anyway."

He pauses, wiping his brow again and peering up at the dark holes in the cliffs.

"I wouldn' be in a hurry, 'cept with the sun like it is...well, we'll be in trouble soon, I'd wager, if we don' get some water in us. Looks like a pretty rough climb...not sheer, but tough. I'm no great climber, and I don't have a strand o' rope on me. I'm hopin' one o' you has an idea or two? Them bird-lizards we saw last night didn't give me no trouble when I was walkin' around by the base of the rocks, but who knows what they'll do when we climb up past their holes?"

He pauses again, a pensive expression crossing his toughened features.

"Heh...'spose I shoulda' watched 'em when they turned in last night. Got to drink, same as other critters. Maybe we coulda' seen which direction they flew to water...or, then...maybe they've got water in them holes of theirs. Either way, we've got to put a move on. It'll rain this afternoon, unless I miss my guess...and I don't want to have to climb in the wet, or trust the rain for my water."

Turning back, he shades his eyes and cranes his neck, gazing upward. Over the narrow shore, the island's barrier cliffs tower, uneven crags towering hundreds of feet in the air. Holes are visible as before, though no climbing vegetation or growth presents itself as a possible aid to the climb. Up, up, up...a vast and imposing obstacle, reaching toward infinity...set, for now, between the companions and the goal they now seek...wherever it may lie.

[Kahlynn]

Kahlynn

...swallows nervously, gazing up at the cliffs, one hand shading her eyes. "We're going to have to ... climb those? Oh, dear ..."

She returns to packing up her supplies, such as they are, and stowing them in her pack. "I suppose there's no help for it, is there? Well, we certainly do need water, and fortune doesn't come to those who sit idle." Resolutely she sets her pack across her shoulders and settles it into a comfortable position, and gives the group an encouraging smile.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say. Light shine on our endeavours."

[Avernaith]

Sparky

Despite the hours of grim searching and the sapping fatigue of heat, Sparky moves with a bit of spring in his step. Along with the rest of the party, he scans the towering cliffs from base to top, but a smile slowly spreads across his face as he does so. "Wow, those are gonna be so much fun to scale! Don't worry everyone, I brought rope and climbing gear." He whistles as he pulls his pack off of his shoulder to ready his gear, breaking in with an occasional disjointed lyric. "We are the ones they fear the most, the Brotherhood, Brotherhood, Brotherhood, Brotherhood, of the Coast..."

[AmoDman]

Elebery Lockwidge

Lock smiles up at the imposing cliff face to climb, "That old thing?" He questions, "Looks fun. And you say those bird things might be hostile? Eh, well, no harm no foul. I could make it up there within minutes, visible as a gust o' wind. Those animals would never know the difference, but that leaves the opstacle you all...I'm thinkin if I had a bit a rope, I could tie it down well at the top, and the rest of you could make it up. A few lengths to make it down would be best...so more than one could come up at a time. I could also actually grant 3 of you magical means to make it up as well, but I'm afraid after dosing so for myself and hiding from plain sight I'd be well spent of my most potent abilities for the day."

[The_Snark]

Adur

Adur gazes up the cliffs a moment before turning to the others. "Water..." he hesitates, searching for the right words. "...shouldn't be a problem. At least, not drinking water. I can cleanse some of the saltwater, if there is a basin to put it in. But rain will make climbing the cliffs more difficult for you." He gazes at the others with worry; he has no worries for himself.

"Should I look ahead, to find the places where the cliffs are easiest? Slopes such as these can be deceptive from below." He has experience with such places, but what it tells him is that they should be avoided; at least, in the mountains they should, where a broken leg or arm can mean infection, starvation, and death. "Or," he adds, Locke's speculations having inspired him, "I might be able to take up a rope, too." He gazes upwards again, trying to remember what he saw of the flying beasts and whether they would be dangerous to climbers at this time of day.

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Knowlege (nature) on the flying things was 29.

[AmoDman]

Eleberry Lockwidge

"How much rope can you carry?" Asks Lock, just remembering the Druid's intriguing ability to take animal form. "If it's the quickest solution up there I could grant a few minutes of Invisibility instead."

[Tyrel_Aurelian]

Darkstrider

After the frustrating search, at the prospect of climbing the cliffs the Goliath's features spread in a slow smile of anticipation.

"Finally we are being rewarded with a little fun at least! There is no need to fear those cliffs, Lady Kahlynn. I am confident that they'll provide an abundance of handholds and other helps one might need in besting them. Just take your time. I can climb ahead, and if the small dragons prove to be hostile and not sleeping I will do my best to clean a path for you guys. I bet they aren't immune to neck-breaking..."

He makes to gathering the things he calls his own, also fastening his Greathammer to his back.

[PolkaBear]

Nivlan Kirk

"Don't worry about length. I have an inexhaustible supply of rope on this spool right here." He unclips something from his belt and hands it over to Lock. "Just remember that it has to stay attached to the spool. If it's cut, it disappears. Magic, of course."

[Annarrkkii]

Shael Greyswan

I don't want to have to tap Marix again today, if I can help it, but...

"I should be able to scale those cliffs with little difficulty. Were I to take the spool with me, perhaps graced with a few protectice enchantments, I could anchor it in place, while the rest of you kept an eye and an arrow trained on the sky."

[blue chicken]

Yorkin's mouth gapes open at the mention of water, and he narrows his eyes for a moment before chuckling.

"You mean ta' tell me that I've been gaspin' and gapin' for a drop o' clear water since this mornin', and all you hafta' do is wave your hands around to clean the salt outta the ocean water? What's the wait? Get us some water, Adur! We don't know how long it'll take us to find somethin' drinkable up yonder. I know that I could use a bit of refreshin' before I climb anythin'."

Meanwhile, Adur ponders the creatures above, raking through his memory for something comparable or a legend he's heard. Knowledge: Nature -

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While the winged creatures are beyond the scope of anything Adur has encountered before, he is able to glean some basic information from what he observed. As near as he can tell, they are fisher-lizards, not well equipped to prey on aerial creatures, and with beaks designed more for plucking and holding than for slashing and pecking. From the apparent communal nature of their living arrangements, however, he deduces that there is a high likelihood that nests and/or young may be stashed in some of the caves, making approaching them a dicey proposition.

Glancing up at the cliffs and looking back at the druid, he shrugs once.

"Guess I'd forgotten yer a wild man...forgot all about that shapeshiftin' o' yourn. How much can ye' carry as a bird? Mayhaps if he took off all his equipment, you could haul little Jormey up there...or even Sparky. 'Specially if one o' you magic types could cast somethin' to make ye' a little stronger for the flight. Just a thought, though...I wouldn't know much, seein' as how I got no special powers or anythin' o' the sort."

[KuH]

Fryst

Fryst stretches himself after the long hours helping with the poison. He takes one of the doses and slips it into his pouch. The other dose gets carefully poured into a cunning container hidden in his feathered wristband. He brandishes it for a moment. "You never know when a little poison may come in handy! Thank you, Kahylnn. You seem very skilled - almost like a herbalist I knew once ... although clearly you have different backgrounds."

"Adur, thank you for the offer of the water ... and Yorkin, sorry for leaving you parched out here. We've been so busy working I haven't thought about it. I also have the same skill as Adur. Here." Fryst takes a pot from the flotsam from the ship, rinses and dries it out, concentrates for a moment, hisses a few words, and fills it up with clean drinking water.

"I agree - that cliff looks quite comfortable to stretch our muscles on" [OOC: looks like around a DC 15 climb check?] "Those beasts seemed nocturnal, so now is the best possible time to get climbing. Perhaps if Shael, Sparky, Jorme - you must be a good climber, Jorme, with all the time you spent aloft as a sailor - and myself climb up together, with a rope between us for security? Adur, you can also accompany us, in whatever form you like best. I can take the lead, and between you and I we can watch and listen carefully for inhabited caves ... hopefully we can climb around them ... and let's climb as quietly as we can."

"If we run into trouble, we can retreat into one of those holes to fight from in a defensive position. Assuming we get to the top safely, we can attach the rope, and the others can climb up, with Darkstrider climbing beside to help protect them, while we ready what weapons we have to distract attacks."

Fryst looks around at his companions to see if they agree, and then straps his blowpipe and staff to his back. At some point in the morning he has changed out of the funny woolens he was wearing, and now he has a feathered headdress on, matching his bracelet, and has stripped partly down, displaying his bronzed skin. Besides his own items, Fryst takes the pot he used earlier, and hooks it to the back of his pack as a final parting gift from the sea and the ship.

[The_Snark]

Adur

Adur smiles ruefully, apologizing to Yorkin. "Sorry. I'm still not used to thinking of saltwater as useless, especially since I can drink it. I hadn't thought that we might be short of water. If we need more, just ask." He doesn't move to purify water now, though, since Fryst has proven capable of the same feat.

"Those things came out at night, and they looked like they only ate fish. But they almost reminded me of seabirds, and those like to make their nests on cliffs like these. If these have nests here... well, no bird likes big animals near its eggs. And if they are like seabirds, they'll work as a flock to drive us off. We should try to avoid their roosts if we can."

He holds out a hand to Lock, tentatively at first, asking for the magic rope. Hefting it and experimentally reeling out a few feet, he nods. "I can carry this up. Maybe I can try and find a place that's far enough away from the roosts that we won't bother them going up." He looks at Jorme and then Sparky, consideringly. "I might be able to carry one of you up," he says slowly. "If I can find some way to hold on."

[AmoDman]

Elberry Lockwidge

Lock nods at Adur, handing him the rope, glad enough to give the responsibility to another if a bit miffed that their own abilities overshadowed his own. It didn't really matter to him, though, conserving their resources was best in a situation like this. "Very well then," he says, "But I believe Sparky said he has some rope as well. This endless supply is quite handy to have, but as I was saying earlier more than one length down the cliff face will allow those without other means to make it up all the quicker. If you wish for more concealed ascent, nature form or not, just say the word and I'll grant you a few minutes of Invisibility."

[The_Snark]

Adur

Adur pauses a moment for thought. "No... No, I don't think so. If the seabirds—" even if they are reptilian, their habits make them seem more like seabirds to Adur— "are going to turn aggressive, we should know before we start the climb. Anyway," he adds, making an attempt at humor, "I can fly back down a lot faster than I can go up."

He sets the spool of rope on the ground, gathering his thick cloak and half-spreading his arms. He halts, looking around at the others. "I'll look for a place that looks safe to climb up first?" he asks, a hesitation in his tone making the statement into a question.

[Annarrkkii]

Shael Greyswan

Do they need to know I can climb anywhere? Whether it's a safe path or not? No. They'll need a safe route, no matter where I climb, so we might as well start from one.

Good thinking.

The elf growls softly under his breath. SHUT UP!

Shouldering his pack, reobtained after the morning salvage, Shael waits for the group to start moving toward the cliff, snugging his hat slightly lower on his brow.

[KuH]

Fryst

Fryst looks around impatiently at the rest of the group, and finally pipes up. "The weather isn't going to get any better. Let's just pick the safest looking section, and start climbing up."

"If we're quiet enough, good for us. If the seabirds gang up on us, we can retreat into a cave, kill the inhabitants, and let them come at us one at a time until they tire of the sport. If they don't attack, we'll be up and safe."

"That part over there looks like it has the fewest caves. Let's just try it. It's not going to be any easier tomorrow."

"If anyone has anything better to say, speak now ... if not, let's go."

You notice, in passing, that your barbarian friend doesn't seem that patient ... :-)

[PolkaBear]

Nivlan Kirk

"Agreed, Fryst. But I won't be the first one up. It's not a matter of courage, it's more a matter of skill: I know that I'm going to need that rope in order to make it. Since I'm depending on others, I didn't want to dictate how that happened. But maybe I should say something now."

"I sense that some of you are reluctant to thrust yourselves forward, for fear of offending another capable member of this party. Don't worry about it. We're in a survival situation; and so as long as everyone's willing to be flexible and laugh off an occasional misstep, it's more important to move forward successfully than it is to carefully observe protocol. I'm sure we'll establish a routine once we know each other better; but at the moment, let's just get up the cliff while we still have daylight. If two people go up, we'll just string two lines."

[The_Snark]

Adur

Adur nods, as nobody objects, and slightly self-consciously, he shifts his form, arms spreading outwards into feathered wings. Where he stood barely a second ago, there is an osprey of great size, wings spanning ten feet or so. With a taloned foot, the osprey grasps Nivan's spool of rope, then hops forward a couple of awkward steps and launches itself into the air, skimming just a few feet over the beach before flaps of its wings lift it higher.

Rope clenched firmly in one foot, Adur begins to circle upwards, eyeing the cliff face as he rises. He looks for safe routes up—not in terms of climbing ability, as he's been convinced they have more than enough equipment and magic to get them all safely to the top. Instead, he searches for cave openings, in particular inhabited ones, making sure to stay well away from those. The eggs- the chicks- stay away from them, he reminds himself, flying along the contours of the little wedge of beach. Find paths away.

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Don't know if you want a Spot roll, or anything; Adur's modifier is +13. His AC in this form is a less-than-ideal 14. He's looking to see if there's a straight path up the cliffs that doesn't take them close to any inhabited caves, or at least if there's a way that wouldn't take them near very many. He'll make sure to stay out a ways from the cliffs, so as not to make the pterosaurs think he's after their eggs.

[Annarrkkii]

Shael Greyswan

"I'll take the other rope, if there is one long enough. I can scale this easily enough."

Shael holds out his hand for the rope—if they decide to use another.

[blue chicken]

Yorkin whistles softly at Adur's transformation, shading his eyes and watching from below as the druid's winged shape grows smaller and more distant.

"Full o' tricks, that one...wish I could do half the things I've seen you folks doin'. Afraid me and Jormy ain't much use here on the land..."


Meanwhile, as Adur circles, he elicits only the barest of responses from the cliff dwellers. Each time thermals bear him up past another rank of openings, a sentry or two takes to the air, clearly intending to analyze this new potential threat. Each of them, however, does little more than swoop in for a closer look before winging back to the caverns they issued from, apprently satisfied that this new flying creature poses no serious problems.


Adur -

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As you fly up, you fail to spy out any single straight route that will bear you past the rookeries without passing near at least a few of them. The caves appear to be natural, and random; they are scattered across much of the cliff-face with no apparent pattern but a fair degree of consistency. You know from the behaviour of the pterosaurs that they are not off their guard, and that the daylight presents little problem to them. From their behavior, you surmise that they will not attack unless they perceive a genuine threat to their territory or families.

Looking down from near the top of the cliff-face, you see one section of rocks that seems clearer than most, though a straight drop down is still impossible. Were a skilled climber to peg the rope at intervals, however, it seems likely that an angled ascent could be fashioned that would zig-zag between the entrances to the cliff's caverns and reach the top without too much trouble. (I.E., rope-and-piton combo that will angle the rope between cliff openings...DC 10, since it's between a knotted rope and a wall with handholds, using both together.)