Exploration & Personal Magic Items [IC]

[GuyFawkes]

Willem Raeven

"Appointed, to be honest," he said with ba resigned expression. He walked closer to Cynfu and whispered. "To be quite frankly, I really didn't wanna go. Just got married, you know, and my son was just born but a few days ago. And I am terribly missing the little bugger. Oh, you should see him..."

Suddenly, he remembered. He hasn't told his cousin yet.

"Hey, Arturo! I have a son now! You should both go visit sometime! Jocelynn would be delighted to have you. She'd be alone with the babe most of the time, save the house help," he was talking fast and animated now.

"Which reminds me. When are you two having kids? Eh?" Wil looked from Arturo to Cynfu, and back to his cousin. "It's about damn time! Little Ulric would need playmates soon, you know?"

[JeenLeen]

Jimmy smiles wide at the neat find, taking a moment to offer it to the land-owner before putting it in one of the loops on his backpack. He'd been told his rod could find what was needed, so maybe that meant this would be handy.

Overall, he stays pretty quiet while the others converse. His grin falters a bit as they talk of marriage, kids, and such. Nothing real noticeable, but, well, one of his usual switches from carefree to a touch sullen. The small part of him that is self-aware hopes the others pass it off as homesickness. (An unconscious, selfish part of him hopes the others drop the uncomfortable topic.)

Stepping a touch back from the conversation--enough so it's not rude to have two conversations going--he turns to Jack. "Seems at least two of us have some magic gear on us. You got anything neat in your pack?"

[Ramsus]

And so the explorers and the married couple share a nice meal together. As the explorers are saying their goodbyes, Arturo brings out two sets of eelskin galoshes and an eelskin cloak saying, "Wish I had more of these for ya boys, but we only jus' started making em recently and we sold the others already."

Cynfu adds, "They'll be helpful in the fens. So how are you heading. Around the north or south?"

Arturo cuts in with, "Or right through the middle?" and gives a chuckle and Cynfu just rolls her eyes.

[GuyFawkes]

Willem Raeven

"Actually, I was really going for the straight route right through the middle, since we have no clue before we decided to come here," Wil said with an embarrassed chuckle which slowly became serious. "Is it a bad idea?"

"Anyway, I cannot express my gratitude well enough for your kind hospitality and with these gifts, which I am sure we will be needing. As the official representative of the city for this expedition, it is within my powers to express our appreciation for your service to Westhaven."

He took Arturo's hand and placed on it a small pouch that jingled when moved. Inside it were 10 suns which he prepared earlier from the funds he had been given by the Council. He gripped his cousin's hand in a firm handshake, bowed to Cynfu, and then went for his horse, which was grazing nearby.

"Come along, boys. We're well fed and well-rested. Let's cover as much ground as we can today. I'm feeling pumped up!" he shouted before heading towards the direction of the north.

[Feralgeist]

Erik finishes polishing his shades and puts them on. "Thank you for everything. We'll probably see you next spring. Who knows, maybe in a few years this will be a trade route." He smiles and gives a small grunt as he shoulders his pack and hustles to catch up to Willem in an odd scuttling half-run.
Slightly out of breath he says "North? Yeah, solid. Pumped. Let's do this."

[Feirgon]

Parfu

Parfu did his best to remain reticent as he accepted the eelskin clothing.

"Thank you.

And next time you see us, we'll hopefully have many stories to tell."

He then joins Wilem and the others.

"So...I'm gonna be honest with you guys. I'm perfectly ok if someone else would like to use the galoshes and the cloak.

Just sayin'."

[JbeJ275]

Jack looks closely at the eel skin, a look of disgust crossing his face at the possibility of wearing eel. Out of politeness he says nothing, but it’s clear that he doesn’t really want to wear them.

[JeenLeen]

Jimmy smiles in amusement at the reactions to the eel-skin. Not that it looks appealing to him, but... well, being a farmer, you learn to appreciate some less-appealing tools.

"Well, I'll wear 'em if none of you want to. And, on that note, if any of you think you'd be better with the ice pick axe, feel free to carry it."

He'd gladly save some risk to his boots.

[Ramsus]

Arturo closes Willem's hand around the coins and says a bit sternly, "None of that. We're family. You don't pay family for gifts."

In response to their idea for a route he comments, "Well I can't say as it's a bad idea. What I do know is that no man who's went into the heart of the swamp has come back out alive."

There is a long dramatic pause.

Cynfu then breaks it by flatly stating, "Because nobody has actually gone in there." Then after a pause she adds, "Though your horses and the like would probably wind up breaking a leg or drowning in a sinkhole, so you probably shouldn't."

Arutro shrugs at this and comments to his wife, "Not sure how they're planning on getting them beasts up the glacier either. Maybe their fancy magic relics will help their animals through both?"

[JeenLeen]

Arutro shrugs at this and comments to his wife, "Not sure how they're planning on getting them beasts up the glacier either. Maybe their fancy magic relics will help their animals through both?"

Jimmy chuckles. "My fishin' rod might be magic, but my fishin' line isn't. I could picture tying one of them and tryin' to haul them up, but it won't work too well."
He's now glad he decided not to take one of his farm's donkeys.

[Feralgeist]

"You make a good point, the glacier will be tricky." Erik chimes in thoughtfully, stroking his gloves absentmindedly.
"To be honest I'm not even sure if these even work on ice.....it's not exactly a mineral." he shakes his head to clear it of doubts "I'm sure it'llbe fine, worse comes to worst we can make a scaffolding and ramp or a raft for the worst parts. There'sno shortage of wood around here."

[Ramsus]

And thus, well fed and warned about the dangers of the swamp...... you head directly into the swamp.
It's ok at first. A little slower paced because you have to go around obvious deeper waters in a kind of winding path and the ground is softer under your feet. The constant mosquitoes and other insects buzzing around isn't particularly fun either.
About four hours into the fens you're at the third time you're having to struggle to convince your beasts of burden to continue going forwards on this more and more unreliable path forwards, when Willem's horse gets all four of its legs stuck in some kind of thick muck and can't get itself out. At the same time Jimmy and Parfu notice a five foot long snake descending down in the horse's direction from the trees above.

[GuyFawkes]

Willem Raeven

"Whoa, girl. Eeasy. I'll get you out," Wil patted Auburn to calm her down. He went for one the coils of rope and began securing one end onto the horse's saddle.

"Okay, boys. I'm going to need your help. Sorry for this. Just need to secure this rope on her and we can use the trees to pull her up and out."

[JeenLeen]

This stinks, literally and metaphorically, thinks Jimmy as they trudge through the swamp. At least the eelskin is helping some. But he tries to keep his spirits up (and looks forward to sampling some of the spirits in his flask when they make camp, after a trip like this).

---

As Jimmy starts to advance to help free the horse, he sees the snake and pauses. "Snake. Big snake." He says and points to it, freeing his rod. "I can try to catch it, but that ain't what I'm best at. Any of you got some means to deal with it?"

Spoiler

Show

d100 to check if I know anything about that type of snake. I reckon not, but maybe from farming near the edge of town.

Spoiler

Show

d100

EDIT: used wrong tags to roll for knowledge, so I'll roll OOC

Ramsus, feel free to roll the appropriate roll for Jimmy to try to catch the snake (guessing straight d100) if that's the offense the team agrees to. I'll roll if asked, but I don't want to slow down the game if you're waiting on my roll.

[Ramsus]

Jimmy is fairly certain the snake is a python of some kind. A fairly small one at that. You know it isn't venomous, though it could still certainly pose a danger to the horse.

---

I'm not going to roll for you catching the snake because I don't know how you want to catch the snake or who (if anyone) would be helping you (and how).

[Feirgon]

Parfu

At the sight of the snake, Parfu enters a defensive stance.

"You guys work on freeing the horse, I'll try to keep the snake away."

Hand-to-hand combat with a snake? What am I thinking?

Spoiler

Show

Snake-fu! (2d100b1)[97]

[JbeJ275]

Jack scrambles backwards from the snake, almost losing his balance and staggering backwards.

As the others approach the snake he runs to get to the other side of the horse and then tries to help guide the beast into getting it’s hooves on more solid ground.

Animal Handling (1d100)[42]

[Feralgeist]

Erik gulps at the sight of the snake and the shudders at the distressed horse.
"I think I'll help with the snake."
Donning his metal face mask and gloves he warily approaches the reptile and with a squawk of what could be bravery tries to pin its head.

(1d95)[17] (martial combat)

[JeenLeen]

Seeing his companions who are actually trained in combat -- as far as Jimmy knows -- deciding to handle the combat, Jimmy puts his rod back and goes to help Jack with the horse. His farm didn't use horses often, just sometimes borrowing one for a big moving job, preferring more docile draft animals... but, still, Jimmy wasn't weak and he could help pull a rope.

[Ramsus]

Parfu and Erik manage to grab hold of the python. Though Erik slips and winds up falling on his butt into a bit of mud, Parfu has a very solid hold on the snake and after a minute or so it realizes it's not going to get free and stops struggling.

The other three successfully manage to get the horse free, though it does take a bit of time. Fortunately the horse is fine as they'd managed to keep it calm enough to avoid it injuring itself in a panic.

So the questions now are... if they continue heading deeper into the fens or go a bit further out of the way to go around it as much as they can?
And what to do with the python?

[Feirgon]

Parfu

"So, uh, I have a snake in my control but did not think of what to do afterwards."

There is a bit of a panicked look in Parfu's eyes as he alternates his focus from the snake to his companions.

Sis would be laughing her ass off right now.

"I'm comfortable with letting it go...but might I suggest we go around the swamp to hopefully avoid crossing paths with...it, again."

[GuyFawkes]

Willem Raeven

Wil calmed Auburn and led her towards the shallower parts. "Splendid job. You caught it without killing it. We can keep it for food."

He looked across the swamp lands. "I don't think it's going to be easy for the horse if we cut across like this. Same for us, really. I'd prefer solid ground for when I'm sleeping at night. We should probably skirt around, to the north maybe. Like my cousin suggested," he said before looking to the others for their input.

[JeenLeen]

Jimmy shrugs. "I've cooked snake before, so I'm all for taking it for food. Can't say I'd do make it tastey, but edible.

And, yeah, agree that skirting to the north for a bit then heading on steadier ground sounds good. I, um, recall a bit about those snakes from what I learnt, and big as that one is, it isn't the biggest we'd probably see if we continued down this path."

[Feirgon]

Parfu

Parfu gave a concerned look at Jimmy and Wil.

"Okay. So which one of is going to kill it? Because both of my hands are busy.

...Unless you proposing we hold onto it for awhile. In which case, where do you want me to put it?"

He holds the snake in their direction as if it offer up to them.

[GuyFawkes]

Willem Raeven

Wil took from his pack one of the sacks he had brought.

"You can put it here. Best to kill it later for supper."

He held the sack open and let Parfu place the snake inside. He then spun the sack so it tightened on the creature to not give it much room to try anything before tying the end into a knot and gave it back to Parfu.

"All right, boys. Let us move along. I would certainly love to be on solid ground before nightfall."

Wil took his horse's reigns and led it on.

[Ramsus]

And so they left and traveled around the outskirts of the fens until dark, with a violently thrashing snake in a bag the whole way which spooked the animals several times and overall was very annoying. No other troubles, aside from still an irritating amount of insects, chanced upon them that day.

---

So yeah. Campfire scene or do people want to just skip ahead?

[GuyFawkes]

Willem Raeven

Wil looked at the outline of the mountains against the last light of day. He sighed, took out one torch and lit it.

"Shouldn't be too far now." He curled his toes inside his wet boots, then continued forward. "Not too long to be finally off all this mud."

[Ramsus]

You all enjoy some snake and get a nice night of sleep. In the morning you head out. After traveling a few more hours you're pretty close to the spot where the Dwarfhome mountain and the Rosewater glacier meet. You're also at the point where there's no avoiding traveling into the edge of the swamp again if you go closer to the waterfall.
So the question is do you try to climb the meeting point or do you continue on to the waterfall?

[Feirgon]

Parfu

Parfu looks at the horse then up the slope and then toward the waterfall.

"Well, Wil, which way would you rather go? I think I would rather climb, but I would be comfortable walking along the edge of the swamp toward the waterfall."

[GuyFawkes]

Willem Raeven

"Hmm. To be honest, I'd rather prefer to stay dry for the longest time possible. And, we would probably need to climb if we reach the waterfall anyway. I say we start climbing where the mountains meet the ice," Wil said as he considered the options.

"But, I am no expert on trekking myself. I am not sure which would be easier. How about you?" he turned towards the other two. "Let us decide by majority vote."