[IC] Adventures of the Tylosians

[Izzarra]

A few hours after nightfall Serenity gets the feeling that the group is not alone in the night.

[Valmark]

Serenity calmly poked Hadwyn with her feet until he was roused awake.
"I think somebody -or something, could just be an animal- is staring at us. Watch my back while I check it out?" she whispered.

Spoiler: Ooc

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Perception to identify the source of the feeling! (1d20+4)[24]

[Jumbus]

Hadwyn Evarius Human Fighter 1 AC: 14 HP: 13/13 Spell Slots: 0 PP: 12 PInv: 14 PIns: 12 Conditions: none Hadwyn woke with a stir but didn't properly wake up until Serenity had fully finished her sentence. He was quick to respond by grabbing his sword, but he was actually sure what direction he was supposed to be looking considering how dark it was. "I'll have your back, but do you think we should grab something so we can see better? I didn't prep any torches and its going to be difficult to see out there." Hadwyn assumed a fighting stance, if there was anything that intended harm out there he was going to be as prepared as he possibly could.

[Valmark]

"I wasn't planning on leaving the safety of the light... And I don't have a torch" Serenity said not having torch proxies or light-making cantrips either. Thus she stood at the edge of the light with her shield and dagger on hand in case it was a threat.

Spoiler: Ooc

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24 perception rolled from the previous post!

[Izzarra]

Scouting the immediate surroundings of the camp you find a pack of hungry racoons. Some of them hiss at you.

[Jumbus]

Hadwyn Evarius Human Fighter 1 AC: 14 HP: 13/13 Spell Slots: 0 PP: 12 PInv: 14 PIns: 12 Conditions: none It was only raccoons, at the very least he was glad he wouldn't be having to fight for his life. "It's good you picked up on them. With the limited food we have, they can be just as dangerous as a large bear if they started raiding our supplies." Hadwyn begun shooing them off, swaying his sword slowly in front to signify that it would be dangerous for them to attack.

[Valmark]

Serenity looks at Hadwyn's attempts to scare them away and decided to wake the rest of the group up.
"There's a pack of racoons" she explained "Hadwyn's trying to scare them away, I figured it'd be better to wake you up in case they don't appreciate"

[Bobthewizard]

Zale Akai Quickling Hexblade 1 AC: 14 HP: 10/10 Spell Slots: 0 / 1 PP: 14 PInv: 11 PIns: 12 Conditions: none Zale shakes off the sleep following Serenity's words. They barely register at first, but as the realization that raccoons have come to investigate, Zale thinks, food! He sits up, takes the remaining smoked meat off his shield and dons the shield. Finding the raccoons in the dark is easy. He walks towards them carefully and tosses a few strips of meat at them when he is about 10' away. As the raccoons start to eat the food, once they are clumped together, he waves his hands and shouts, "Zmflvyr!" A loud thunderclap shocks the air, waking the remaining party members and likely alerting anyone nearby to our location.

Spoiler: OOC

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Casts Thunderwave at the raccoons (2d8)[7] DC13 CON save for half.

[Izzarra]

The eleven raccoons consider Hadwyn to be mostly harmless and walk around him staying out of reach.

Most of them are adults, but there is a litter of cubs that are a few months old.

They collect the food and begin to take it away to wash in a nearby stream.

When Zale casts his spell one adult racoon is thrown into the trunk of a nearby tree, dead. The loud boom of thunder causes the rest scatter with the food they collected.

There is one cub that panics and tries to hide under the root of a tree, but it's rear end is hanging out.

Spoiler: OOC

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Mechanically the raccoons are/were being treated as a swarm.

[Servbot]

Lleu Vrumugun

If Lleu wasn't already awake because Serenity woke him, then boy, Zale sure would've done the trick! As it is, though, Lleu's completely there. Rest in Pepperonis, Trance, you were fun while you lasted.

When he realises the raccoons've made off with the food, Lleu's first thoughts turn to...

"Oh crud, there goes breakfast. But," Lleu motions over to Serenity, "maybe we can catch that one and get it to lead us to the others?" That's how it works in books, right? Who else here are good at catching animals?

[Bobthewizard]

Zale Akai Quickling Hexblade 1 AC: 14 HP: 10/10 Spell Slots: 0 / 1 PP: 14 PInv: 11 PIns: 12 Conditions: none After somehow missing the raccoons with his thunderwave, Zale realizes he is going to need to take them out one at a time. He sees them take the scraps of squirrel and fish meat to the stream and takes aim. He stays as far away as he can while still seeing the raccoons. "You will not take my food so easily!" A bolt off energy, this time silent, flies from his hands at one of the raccoons. After shooting, he backs up another 15'.

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d20+5)[17] to hit for (1d10)[2] damage

[Valmark]

Serenity sighed and started collecting the food the racoons scattered.
"We could probably let one escape and follow it- it'll be a problem in the darkness for you all" she pointed at her own eyes "Mine are outright useless so I wouldn't be able to partecipate either way if we wanted a minimum of sneakiness"

[Archemist]

Toru is finally roused by the thunderbolt and at first thinks, "Stars, if there's a storm this tarp will never stay up."

But he catches on quickly and says, "Little robbers! Inevitable that they'd find us in the woods here. We could've had the food under lock and key and they might still have found a way to make off with it."

He observes, "One or two have paid with their lives and are now food for us again. I don't think we need to chase down the others. Let's finish our rest, which will surely be more valuable than the other scraps." He yawns a mighty goliath-sized yawn as if to punctuate this.

Toru notices the one raccoon-butt stuck in the air and grabs it, tossing the raccoon (quickly, but gently) back into the woods.

[Izzarra]

Zale manages to kill another racoon that is fleeing.

Alara says a blessing for the dead racoons "May the great spirits watch over them." She nods approval to Toru for letting the little one go.

[Bobthewizard]

Zale Akai Quickling Hexblade 1 AC: 14 HP: 10/10 Spell Slots: 0 / 1 PP: 14 PInv: 11 PIns: 12 Conditions: none When the raccoons flee, Zale pursues for a short while to see if he can get another one, shooting another Eldritch blast. "Take that!" After one more shot, regardless of whether he hits or misses, he then returns to camp with any of the dead raccoons.

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d20+5)[10] to hit for (1d10)[7] damage

[Valmark]

Serenity got to prepare the meat before piling it back with the other nicely.
"Guess we can go back to bed. Or to watching, in my case" she told the others.

[Jumbus]

Hadwyn Evarius Human Fighter 1 AC: 14 HP: 13/13 Spell Slots: 0 PP: 12 PInv: 14 PIns: 12 Conditions: none It wasn't Hadwyn's proudest moment. To be honest, him shooing the raccoons was greatly hindered by how tired he was. It had been a big day. What was he going to do now, run his sword through a baby raccoon? He thought not. Hadwyn let out a big yawn and started stumbling back to his bedroll. Even the arsenal of loud noises coming from Zale couldn't break this spell. "Let's just get to bed again, oh and we should wrap up the food tighter."

[Izzarra]

Zale's parting shot misses the raccoons and takes a chunk of bark off a tree.

Spoiler: OOC

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You can spend some more time rp'ing between yourselves or go back to sleep.
The rest of the night passes without event.
Topic of IC discussion will you continue to follow the edge of the lake or go into the hills in search of larger game and different raw materials for crafting?

[Valmark]

"We should probably head out where there are bigger preys tomorrow, it would allow us to forage that much more food" Serenity proposed when the others were heading back to sleep.

[Bobthewizard]

Zale Akai Quickling Hexblade 1 AC: 14 HP: 10/10 Spell Slots: 1 / 1 PP: 14 PInv: 11 PIns: 12 Conditions: none In the morning, Zale helps smoke the raccoon meat from the two dead raccoons, wrapping the strips of meat in leaves before placing them in his pack. While sitting around the fire in the morning, he considers the day ahead. "I think we should take the most direct route to the mountain. For today, we should be more concerned about water than food. There should be enough food for the day either way and even if we follow the lake today, we will have to traverse the foothills on our way to the mountaintop. We will need to follow the stream that comes from the mountain so that we have water for the journey."

Spoiler: OOC

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I don't know how the distances work for either choice, but we shouldn't add time to the journey just to hunt large game. This is a 6 day round trip, so food isn't essential. We just need water and something to keep us warm at night. Food is a bonus but not necessary.

I assume one of the characters knows the most direct route to the mountain and knows which tributary to follow upstream to get there.

Survival for the day's hunting: (1d20+2)[16]

[Servbot]

Lleu Vrumugun

With the nightly adventures over, the group returns to the quest at hand! Well, he kinda wishes they'd tried to retrieve their stolen food, but there's probably no helping it. He's spent the night wondering whether it's normal to chase down raccoons, hurling spellfire here and there, but chalks it up to bad mood from being roused in the middle of the night.

"Sure hope we won't run into trouble every night," Lleu puts in. "Might mean next time we ought to just leave the food out somewhere and accept it'll be stolen from us?"

That said, Zale's words sound sensible to him, so Lleu's eager to continue their trek.

[Archemist]

Toru draws a little map out on the dirt in the morning.



He says, "Let's continue on until it makes sense to leave the lakeside behind and head into the hills.

"And if we want to make a hunting trap or food decoy tonight, I may be able to make us something that will create a smell animals will like. Then they'll be less likely to bother our camp."

[Jumbus]

Hadwyn Evarius Human Fighter 1 AC: 14 HP: 13/13 Spell Slots: 0 PP: 12 PInv: 14 PIns: 12 Conditions: none "Yeah, lets just continue on. No point in hanging around, I can't imagine any animals are sticking around here with all the ruckus last night. Let's make good headway toward the mountain and hope we can grab some food on the way."

[Izzarra]

As you continue along the side of the lake the shore gets steeper until eventually it is mostly cliffs along the shore. After a few miles you come to a narrow gorge with a small river emptying into the lake.

The water flows fast in the gorge forming rapids and dropping down several short waterfalls. From your position you can see several logs lodged in the gorge forming natural brides but the ones you see here are difficult to get to, rather narrow, and they look slippery.

Spoiler: OOC

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The cliffs very in height from 20 to 80 feet (6 to 24.5 meters), there are several places on both sides of the gorge where they can be climbed without the need of special equipment.

The gorge is between 10 and 30 feet (3 to 9 meters) deep and 20 to 50 feet (6 to 15 meters) wide.

[Archemist]

Toru takes a long look at the fast-flowing water. "Hmm. Probably easiest to just go down and then up, rather than trying to find place to cross from top to top. That could be a huge detour. Unless we want to try one of the logs? I suppose we could tie ourselves together, that sort of thing. Ideas?"

[Bobthewizard]

Zale Akai Quickling Hexblade 1 AC: 14 HP: 10/10 Spell Slots: 1 / 1 PP: 14 PInv: 11 PIns: 12 Conditions: none Upon reaching the gorge and the swollen river, Zale evaluates their options. "I think crossing on these slippery logs could be dangerous. We could go upriver to find a wider place to ford or we could go downstream and swim in the lake, using logs for floats."

Spoiler: OOC

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IRL you should never cross a river at a waterfall-filled gorge. You can usually find a good crossing point within a mile or so upstream, looking for a place where the river widens and slows.

[Valmark]

"I did say to head out into the cliffs when we had the chance" Serenity muttered under her breath observing the water from the farthest possible place, then shivered and started heading upstream.
"Do what you want, I'm not crossing anywhere near here" she stated simply.

[Archemist]

"Upriver it is, then, I suppose. Shouldn't be too long before it flattens out, right?" Toru's goliath shoulders go up and down like a mini-earthquake as he turns to the left away from the lake.

[Izzarra]

Following the river up hill you come to a place where a large tree about a yard (meter) in diameter has fallen over forming a natural bridge over the gorge. It is wedged about 10 feet down.

About a half mile (1 kilometer) away you can see the river dropping down a short cliff face. The cliff face is not steep and the top looks to be flat there might be a place to ford the river up there.

[Bobthewizard]

Zale Akai Quickling Hexblade 1 AC: 14 HP: 10/10 Spell Slots: 1 / 1 PP: 14 PInv: 11 PIns: 12 Conditions: none Seeing the larger log to cross, Zale is happy we moved upstream. "I'll tie the rope around my waste and cross. Then we'll tie off both ends and everyone can use the rope as a handrail. The last person across can tie the rope around their waste. If everyone would rather go to the top of the waterfall we could check that out first if you want."