A Gathering Storm

[Saintheart]

Early afternoon, Day 1
Complication Pool: 3 of 6

There was a noise as of rock cracking, and localised rumble from the mountainside path below Njal's horse. The noise was loud enough to carry to the wagon some thirty feet back. Gromnir gave a whine, stopping, looking uncertain. And Njal felt it: at least part of the path below himself and his horse began to crumble, and was collapsing fast...

Spoiler: Whole party OOC

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What do you do?

[Riggdgames]

All other thoughts are driven from Roland's mind as the sound of rending rock echoes up the trail. "Njal? Njal!"

After a moment's hesitation, Roland shrugs off his pack and fishes out a coil of silk rope. "Maxis! Bear a hand there," he says, tossing the rope into the wagon towards her feet. "Ethron! Take care the horses don't bolt!"

[Riggdgames]

Spoiler: OOC

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Sorry for the double post.

I throw the rope towards the wagon, hoping to save someone else a bit of time while I'm stuck trying to figure out how to get around this sled. I'm not sure if this counts as a ranged touch attack or 'use rope' so I rolled both.

Ranged attack: (1d20-1)[17]
Use rope: (1d20+4)[18]


I assume from your description of the path that I can't get around the wagon at all on horseback, correct? Maybe by dismounting and squeezing? Or do I have to climb over and into the sled?

This all assumes forward motion of some kind. If the path continues to crumble around all of us, well, the steel makes a nice clanking noise bouncing off of rock.

[Saintheart]

Spoiler: OOC Riggdgames

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Dismounting and squeezing could certainly get you past the wagon, but let's see what everyone else does first and how events follow from that...

[Toliudar]

Verglas

Surging up to the driver's seat, Verglas snatches up one end of the rope and begins tying it around the most solid-looking sticky-out thing in the wagon. She gestures forward and speaks to Ethron.

"You take the other end, no that one, of the rope and try to help Njal, and I'll, um, try to comfort the horse things."

[Niobaran]

"STOP THE WAGON!" she shouts trying to quickly get into the rear of the wagon to catch the rope thrown to her.

[Auranghzeb]

Instinctively, Mundstock accelerates on the snow and then wings appear on her back, she flies over the Dwarf and tries to grab his hand. She can't do much about the horse, but at least she could take the dwarf out of danger.

Spoiler: OoC

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Actions: Move action forward, SWIFT: Mundstock will activate animal devotion to sprout wings. Standard or move, grab hold of the dwarf. str check (1d20+2)[5]

[Goaty14]

Ethron

"Woah!" Ethron yells, pulling back on the reins as best as he could to get the horses to backtrack, looking around to see if his section of pathway were to crumble as well or not.

Spoiler: Rollz

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Handle Animal check to trot back the horses, if not stop them (with the -2 penalty): (1d20+5)[21]
Spot check to look for cracks underneath him: [/roll]1d20[/roll]... oops, but that's fine, guess I'll just not make a roll :p

[DrK]

Njal

Feeling the slops starting to slip Njal glances ahead looking for the path being solid once more. With a panicked "Hyah," he brings both heels down on Stormrir's flanks sending the horse surging froward into a run trying to gallop free from the slip zone, a glance over his shoulders as he sees Mudnstock swooping nearby on wings!

Spoiler: Ride check

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(1d20+5)[17] if needed

[Saintheart]

Early afternoon, Day 1
Complication Pool: 3 of 6

Ethron hauled mightily on the reins of the sled-wagon. The horses screamed and reared, but did, also, stop. The noise of the collapsing path crescendoed ... but the collapse seemed to stop about five feet short of the rockslide, leaving the sled-wagon intact and level. At least for the moment.

Njal pushed his horse with a mighty effort, and Stormrir did the best he could to comply. The animal bunched its legs, preparing for a great leap forward ...

... an instant too late.

The path collapsed around its feet, and the beast lurched to its left, following the direction of the falling earth and soil, beginning to fall down the steep slope generated by the rockslide. Njal was still in the saddle ...

... until he felt a sudden, insistent tug on his shoulders, and then a lifting sensation as Mundstock caught his clothes and pulled him clear of the saddle, parting man from beast as she flew through the air.

For a second. Njal was thick, tough glacier dwarf, more than two hundred pounds even at his size. Mundstock's arms screamed, and even with the power of her abilities fuelling her, she didn't think she could hold on for longer than the second it took for them to clear the area of the rockslide and land on its far side, a good twenty, thirty feet over. Njal dropped from her arms to the ground, and Mundstock skidded to a halt beside him. She was pretty sure her back would feel that in the morning.

As the rumbling and groaning of the rockslide faded, the party had a chance to look over the situation from both sides of the rockslide.

Between Ethron and Njal's positions on either side of the rockslide, what had been a ten-foot-wide path had become five feet wide. Any of the party could make their way across, and likely the horses could be led one at a time carefully along that narrowed section, but the wagon would have to be turned on its edge and somehow pushed up that five-foot-wide path. That would likely take time and care if the party didn't want to risk a missed footstep and someone going the same way Njal's horse had gone. Alternatively, one could try a faster method by chancing getting the wagon on a crooked angle and pushing across that way, though that seemed to have the risk of further damage to the slope.

A sudden, awful screaming interrupted the party's thoughts.

It came from down the slope.

The slope created by the rockslide wasn't steep enough so as to be a sheer drop, but it was still a fairly sharp incline, not easily walked if walked at all. Thirty feet down, there was another, wider ledge that the rubble had emptied onto. Where Stormrir, Njal's horse had gone. But the horse had, strangely, awfully, survived. It lay on the ledge amongst the rubble, seemingly not covered in rock or earth, but with two legs bent at unnatural angles and cuts visible even from here. The animal's pain could be heard echoing through the mountain air as it screamed.

[Auranghzeb]

An exhausted but still winged Mundstock asked the Dwarf bluntly and cold as she drew her curved blade.

If you want I could fly down and spare the horse of its pain and suffering

[Niobaran]

Maxis

"Or we heal the horse." comes an idea from the other side of hole in the road. "I... I just don't know how to get the horse up again."

[Toliudar]

Verglas

The little gnome's heart was racing. She was cliearly impressed with Mundstock's wings trick. Something she'd have to try to learn sometime.

Not really grasping the possible emotional connection between dwarf and horse, Verglas launched into Solution Mode.

"Well we probably need either that norsey down there, or the wagon, or else we slow down too much, right?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Saintheart, two questions that I ask because different DM's have ruled different ways...so good to check:

Do healing effects cure things like broken/shattered legs in your world? That is to say, if we heal the horse, will it be able to walk again?

Can Vergals' feather token be activated horizontally?

[Goaty14]

Ethron

Ethron sighed. He didn't care much for Stormrir - it was only a horse, and hurt horses weren't too rare from his experience. It's just that things were going oh-so smoothly and then... this. There were more important things to worry about, however, such as how Njal could have been in the same position as his horse right now, and how Ethron himself could be like that too, had his allies not been so wise as to not put him first. Is this really what these "adventurers" went through in their work? That they take on with such ease that they spared no time in recovering from nearly dying to get back to work? Truly, being an adventurer must be as bad as it sounded, and Ethron couldn't wait to be back home, sheltered by a warm fire, but... there were more pressing matters to attend to.
...
Snapping out of his thoughts, Ethron takes a moment to re-observe the scene that laid before him. As he got up and hopped off of his seat, he grabbed his 100' Silk Rope and Climber's Kit. "I have a couple of potions for healing, and this rope to haul it up the slope. After that, we'll have spent enough time idling." he says, loud enough for the others to hear. Turning to Roland, he offers a end of the rope and asks "You look strong enough. Mind helping me?"

[Riggdgames]

Roland

"Aye," Roland says, dismounting and grabbing the rope, "I don't mind helping." Without another word, Roland begins to secure one end to the wagon as a fail-safe, trusting it's weight to hold regardless of whatever else happened. Turning back to Ethron, Roland stops in his tracks at the sound of Stormrir still shrieking in pain down the slope. "Ethron," Roland starts to say, pausing to consider the problem for a moment before continuing, "it might be best if you and I stand idle just a bit longer. I don't think you or I would have much luck giving that poor wretch down there a potion. You might not get a kick for your trouble, but he's still got teeth and probably wouldn't much care for our company right about now. At best I think the snow would get most of your potion. Might be Njal could keep the beast calm enough to take it though," Roland says, looking across the gap and frowning.

It certainly was too much to hope for a day's travel without some mischief. Roland chided himself for believing it might just have been possible. His frown only deepened as he looked back and forth between the gap and the wagon, shoulders slumping as he considers just how dangerous it might be to try to get that wagon across unstable ground.

[DrK]

Njal

Njal cursed long and foully in dwarven as he rolled to his feet. Nodding thanks to Mundstock, "My thanks" he gestures down to the horse. "I'm going to breka out some rope and climb down. I'll heal my friend. Can ye unhook the other beasts and they can pull him up.." Njal gets the rope out and lashes to a stout looking rock before starting to clamber slowly down the short drop.

Reaching Stormrir he nuzzles the proud beast. "Hush now my friend. Hush now." he leans down chanelling energy of the land into the damage leg and helps Stormrir rise to his feet. Looknig up he grins, "Can you lash the rope to the other horses, they can pull us up?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Take 10 to climb down the tethered rope
Cast cure light wounds on Stormrir (1d8+3)[4]

[Riggdgames]

Roland

Roland watches Njal start to make the climb before squeezing past the wagon for a better view. At Njal's urging, he unhooks one of the horses, grasping its harness and leading it carefully over the partially collapsed section of trail. Nodding to Mundstock, he says, "I don't think we'll need both to haul them up, but might not be a bad idea to grab the other horse just in case."

Securing Njal's rope to the horse's harness, Roland calls down, "ready when you are down there!"

[Saintheart]

Early afternoon, Day 1
Complication Pool: 3 of 6

The horse made strained, agonised noises, though it did seem to appreciate Njal's presence; he'd climbed down carefully and managed to avoid sending himself to the base of the slope alongside his mount. However, his healing had only closed some of the least of its injuries; if the adventurers wanted to bring the beast back up the slope, it would take a considerable number more healing spells than a single spell to get the horse in such a state that it could be on its feet once more ... if indeed hauling an injured beast up the slope wouldn't cause it even more injury. At the other end of the rope, the other adventurers were unhitching the horses from the wagon and moving it back so they had a chance to pull.

Next to Mundstock, Gromnir paced back and forth at the top of the slope, occasionally giving an encouraging yap to his master thirty feet below.

Spoiler: OOC all

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The horse is at about 7/19 hitpoints in mechanical terms. I think it'll take the horse getting to about 11/19 hitpoints before it's really possible to try and haul it up the slope without it screaming and fightingly mightily and raising the DC of the checks involved. Speaking of:

Tying ropes securely enough to take a big load like the weight of the horse is a DC 10. It requires a Use Rope check from Njal (or whoever might be going down there to tie the ropes at that end) and a separate Use Rope check from whoever's up at the top end.

Likewise, the Handle Animal check to get the horses to pull a heavy load up the slope is also a DC 10.

You can take 10 on these checks, but if you take 10 on all the checks, it will raise the complication pool by 1 to 4 of 6. Remember that the complication pool is more an abstraction of time passing and rising danger than a minute-by-minute timekeeper; while you're out here making a recovery effort, you are basically sitting targets for anything hungry or listening for noise. Sound carries a long way in the mountains; the longer you're here, the more chance there is that something will notice your presence. Of course, if you don't take 10, it doesn't raise the complication pool, but the chance is that you fail the checks ... with problematic consequences.

[Toliudar]

Verglas

The gnome started to feel a bit of vertigo, just watching Njal sliding down that rope. [COLOR="purple"]Note to self: memorize Feather Fall when traveling in the mountains.[/red]

She turned to Ethron, and then gestured to the washed-away path and the horses that have been pulling the wagon.

"So, uh. Given the vertigionous and potentially terrifying prospect of trying to drive a wagon across a gap, the ground of which has just proven to be more notional than actual rock, how easy do you think it would be to ride those horse things across the gap without the wagon, so we can continue that way? I mean to say, are those chairs on their backs mostly for comfort, or do they have a purpose in driving them as well?"

[Riggdgames]

Roland

Happy to hand the reins over to someone more qualified, Roland steps aside for Mundstock to take the horses and ensure they pull Njal and Stormrir back up. After taking one last look down at Njal healing his horse, Roland turns his attention back to the matter of the wagon currently sitting on the opposite side of a sizable gap in the trail. Walking across the narrow section of trail, Roland carefully inspects it for any signs that the ground is about to give way before ending up in front of three of his new companions.

"I suppose we should all be grateful we're unhurt except for Stormrir, but right now all I can think is we're stuck leaving the wagon and carrying everything on foot from here. Any idea how we'd get this wagon across as-is?" he asks, blowing out a long breath. "I'm stumped."

Spoiler: OOC

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A tree pun because I can. If applicable, I'll roll a search check on the trail to see if there's any obvious sign it's going to give way as soon as we try hauling a wagon across.

Search: (1d20+1)[19]

[Goaty14]

Ethron

Ethron looks to Verglas with a finger raised as if to say something. Closing his mouth, he can't help but look at her weirdly in awe and confusion. He replies "We can move the horses across the gap, if we're careful, yeah?". Before he does that however, he helps Roland secure the ropes - can't be too cautious up here, as he's starting to learn.

Spoiler: OOC

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Small note that the rope is silk, and thus provides a +2 to Use Rope checks (so Roland taking 10 is a result of 14: 10 + 2 (Rope) + 2 (Dex)). Ethron is going to use Aid Another to help secure it, and roll for it because I feel lucky
Use Rope: (1d20+2)[6]
Edit: I am not lucky

[Saintheart]

Early afternoon, Day 1
Complication Pool: 3 of 6

Roland very carefully walked out what remained of the path. It seemed firm and stable enough to support the weight; he was reasonably confident that the horses could certainly be led across the narrow gap, but the wagon was simply too wide to go across without leaning it, or even turning it on its side and pushing it.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the adventurers were earnestly working on getting Njal's horse back up onto the path. It took the adventurers a few minutes to set things up, but, Njal having spent one more charge from his precious wand to knit the horse's bones back into place, they knotted and lashed and roped and finally were ready.

Mundstock breathed deeply, took one last look at the harnessing, and then began to cajole the horses forward. The Illumian could have taken a bit more time with this, but she had a feeling - one common to all of them really - that time wasn't especially a luxury they could afford right this moment. Indeed the humans had spent enough time tying, checking and rechecking the ropes. It was now or never.

The horses answered beautifully. Stormrir was still knocked around, but the horse managed to stay calm enough as they dragged the unfortunate beast back up the slope. Little bits of earth and rock tumbled away, sending hearts into mouths ... but the slope held, and the path held, and it took a few moments and Njal's horse was up at the top of the slope, and getting to its feet even as the humans moved to unlash the horse and undo it.

Now that left getting the wagon across the gap. If indeed they intended on doing that.

Spoiler: OOC

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So with that, if you want to use the feather tree token as described, Verglas can certainly put it in the right spot ... not that she's much of a gardener and thus can't really tell where the optimum spot would be. Once it's in, though, getting the wagon across becomes a straight STR check, DC 15, with you guys pushing it across; it's not likely you could harness the horses so they could pull it across a wide, round tree trunk.

Again there is some choice here: the more people who assist in the push, the higher the STR check you make, but the more weight on the tree-bridge and the greater the odds something will go wrong. If the STR check fails, it's very likely you won't push it far enough and fast enough and the odds of the tree-bridge collapsing get a lot higher. So: assuming you're still going with the tree bridge, what do you all have in mind?

[DrK]

Njal

Njal calms Stormrir as he he clambers down the slope, pulling out the thin hickory wand to heal his friend. A couple of taps from the wand are all that it takes for the bones of the horse to knit together before they rope the horse back up the slope, Njal calming him on the way up. "Nasty business that. Lets hope the same thing didn't take the Greatcats"

[Riggdgames]

Roland

"I suppose we should all be grateful we're unhurt except for Stormrir, but right now all I can think is we're stuck leaving the wagon and carrying everything on foot from here. Any idea how we'd get this wagon across as-is?" he asks, blowing out a long breath. "I'm stumped."

Roland stops in his tracks, hand halfway to his waterskin as the gears slowly turn in his head. A thought taunts him like a word on the tip of his tongue. Squeezing his eyes shut, Roland blocks out everything else trying to find that slippery thought, but to no avail. Was it something he said? Something someone else said? What? Unbidden, a verse he'd once heard in Windspire popped into Roland's head.

Faith is the fire that burns in all of us
Warming us even on the coldest of nights
But in a never-ending battle with frost and snow
The Wild Man's trees aid his mother in the fight

No spark of fire nor...

"Stumped," Roland breathed, shaking his head as he reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a small feather, staring at it. He looked over to the gap in the trail and his lip curled. "Uhh, lads? And ladies...I think I have an idea. Clear the gap," he says. Without further thought and firmly believing the Firekeeper is guiding his hand, Roland brings the feather over to the collapsed area and takes a moment to find the best looking spot to make a bridge. He activates the feather token.

[Saintheart]

Early afternoon, Day 1
Complication Pool: 3 of 6

A moment's silence, a whisper of something unseen.

Then a roll of muted thunder, a crackling from the slope, the smallest glimpse of a green shoot, and decades of time passing in the blink of an eye. The oak took root in the slope, roots digging into the earth, and the trunk of the great tree erupted horizontally, leaves and branches exploding like green fingers, emerald against the grey and white of the slope. The tree reached the other side of the gap, and there seemed to stop, pebbles and a vast spray of dust going up as the oak tree completed its growth, bridging the gap efficiently.

It wasn't exactly one of the graceful bowstring arch spans across the canyon which formed the city of Hartstone, but it certainly had been placed well for something large to be pushed across it. As far as Roland could see the rootball seemed to be stable enough, and the far end of the tree looked to be resting securely on the other side. Whether it was going to hold under a substantial weight was at least partially in the forge of the Firekeeper.

[Toliudar]

Verglas

The little gnome watched intently as Roland executed his plan. Although she'd carried a very similar object around in an inside pocket for more than two years now, she'd never actually seen one used. It was....impressiive.

"Well done, sir, and ingenious, if we're able to keep one runner on the tree and one on the remains of the path, it should be an easy by which I mean harrowingly dangerous but ideally not omnicidal process to push pull and drag the wagon over."

Verglas hopped out of the back of the wagon, and tried to figure out if there was any place where two stubby legs and two nimble but not strong hands could actually assist in maneuvering the wagon on its course.

Spoiler: OOC

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Looking for a way to Aid Another: (1d20)[14]

[Saintheart]

Early afternoon, Day 1
Complication Pool: 3 of 6

It occurred to Verglas that her stature wasn't exactly going to be much help at the back of the wagon, but it could be of some use at the front. Once the sled-wagon got moving, the trick would be to guide the left-hand runner so it didn't run into small branches or twigs on the trunk. She could do something along those lines if she moved ahead of the runner and gave it an appropriate tap or shove to keep it from hitting an obstacle.

Of course, if she did that she'd have to hope that the tree-bridge didn't collapse or something else didn't happen, because in that position if the wagon went down she was definitely going with it, but it was a chance to be useful while the more carrot-shaped types got busy showing off their muscles. If indeed they still made carrots out this way anymore.

Spoiler: OOC

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There's a +2 to the STR roll for you, if Verglas does this.

[Toliudar]

Verglas

The gnome reconsiders, and clambers back into the wagon. She turns to Roland and Ethron, both of which clearly understood these horse things better than she did.

"I'm sure that you lot have everything in hand being all woodsy and snowy type people, is it appropriate to call two people folk? Does folk only refer to a larger group, or could a person be a folk? I was never clear about that. Also not clear whether folk is universally pejorative or may be embraced by an individual as a means of self-classification. Regardless, my point is of course that you are horse folk and I am not but I'm assuming that you might need to be out in front of those horse things, pulling and I don't know feeding them apples or something. Whereas I am small and light and while I wasn't really planning on toppling off of mountain pass to what may or may not be certain death when I got up yesterday, it at least has the charm of being over relatively quickly, being visually stunning and saving my family signifiant funereal expenses.

"In short, do you want me to drive?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Saintheart, I could kiss you for that inspiration.

[Riggdgames]

Roland blushes at Verglas' words, pleased that any action of his could be called ingenious by someone so obviously his intellectual superior. He is left feeling decidedly dumb as he puzzles over a response, and dumber still as the small gnome opens her mouth once more.

A response to the question of what constitutes a folk bubbles to the surface, only to be tossed aside as the more pressing concerns of the moment override all else. Roland wasn't sure he would ever be able to follow a conversation with the Gnomish woman, but her spirit was plain enough to see. Still, what of her safety?

"Verglas, err, perhaps it would be better if..."

The protests died on his lips. They had to keep as much weight off the crumbling ground and their tree bridge as possible, and to look at her, the small Verglas couldn't have weighed much more than his hammer. Besides, he would be blind while pushing. Someone did need to keep them on the right path, lest he push the very wagon they wanted to hold onto right off the side of the mountain.

Roland's shoulders sag a bit as he gives her a resigned grin. "I trust you'll keep us on the right path Verglas. I've no desire to see the view from anywhere lower on the mountainside. As for the horses, I think they'll be better suited to the nice, even ground on the other side of our tree."

Turning to Ethron, Roland claps him on the shoulder with a heavy, gauntleted hand. "Just between us horse-folk, it's probably best if you wait with the others on the far side. I should be able to get this old boat moving by myself. And if something happens, someone's got to be left up there who can come down and save my ***." Roland strides over to his horse, grabbing Ember's reins and handing them to Ethron. "We'll be right behind you."

Walking over to the wagon and leaning heavily on the back end, Roland takes a few deep breaths, waiting for the other to cross the bridge. "What do you say Verglas? Ready up front?" Roland asks. A few butterflies churn in his stomach as he tries not to think about all the things that could go wrong. "On three! One, two, three!" Grunting audibly, he puts his shoulder into the wagon and starts slowly rumbling forward.

Spoiler: OOC

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Strength check with Verglas assisting: (1d20+5)[14]

Edit: That is unfortunate.

[Saintheart]

Early afternoon, Day 1
Complication Pool: 3 of 6

Roland put his full weight into the push, and with Verglas at the front clearing small obstacles, the wagon rumble-slid wonkily over the gap, and up to the point where the wagon was about ten feet from the far end of the gap, it looked as though they were going to make it.

But they had taken just a tad too long, just a tad not fast enough. And as the wagon slid to the ten foot mark from the far end, there was a crack from the rootball end of the gap. With a sudden, groaning lurch, the tree bridge began to come loose at the back end, and the wagon began to yaw to the left, roll the same way, and pitch back in Roland's direction, its weight suddenly much greater on the big man ...

Spoiler: OOC

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What do you do?