previously... Chapter 1 — The Horror of Awakening

[ccanary]

T'Sarra Khonnor 

HP 4/11  | AC 18(+1 vs robots) |  Fort (2) - Reflex (3) - Will (2) | Spells: 0/4 remaining

Temporary conditions

 

 

---

 

T'Sarra helped Val, Domino and the others with loading their spoils. She shrugged as she watched Val put on her dead enemy's brains as war paint, "That's one choice."

Who was she to judge?

"Let's just round up what we can get quickly and get out of here. I don't want to give them a chance to grab us again. And this one's pee is really starting to get... aromatic. Would love to find somewhere to bathe or swim or at least wash it off with a cloth."

She shrugged off the cultist armor and robes, hoping that would help a little, putting her own back on while they prepared to leave. But as soon as she was changed she was ready to go.

 

---

OOC:

Swift:

Move:

Standard (full):

[farothel]

 

Statblock

Vrilundass 'Vri' Arund

Female NG Half-elf Swashbuckler, Level 1, Init 3, HP 4/11, Speed 30ft
AC 16, Touch 13, Flat-footed 13, CMD 15, Fort 0, Ref 5, Will 1, CMB +2, Base Attack Bonus 1   
silversheen, MC rapier +5 (1d6+1, 18-20/x2)
cold iron dagger +4 (1d4+1, 19-20/x2)
shortbow (20)+4 (1d6, x3)
Studded Leather (+3 Armor, +3 Dex)
Abilities Str 12, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 15
Condition None

Vri gave the dog a scratch between its ears.

"Dogs live in packs," she said to Domino, "they don't like to be alone.  And they were held in cages, so I wouldn't be surprised, but I found no signs.  Well, let's get out of here.  C'mon boy."

With the dog following, she would head towards where T'Sarra had found an exit.

 

OOC

none

 

[Inash]

DisclaimerBlatantly stealing Roughtrade's good idea here.

Barhuce

As Barhuce steps over the small creek with an armload of slightly bloodied armor he pauses making a connection that he hadn't before. “You could wash up in this.”

Statblock

Barhuce
M NG Human (Kellid) Alchemist (CryptBreaker), [B]Level[/B] 1, [B]Init6[/B] 4, [B]HP[/B] 7/9, [B]Speed[/B] 30
[B]AC[/B] 15, [B]Touch[/B] 12, [B]Flat-footed[/B] 13, [B]CMD[/b] 13, [B]Fort[/B] 3, [B]Ref[/B] 4, [B]Will[/B] 0, [B]CMB[/B] +1, [B]Base Attack7 Bonus[/B] 0   
[B]1d8 v undead or constructs, DC 14 Alkahest Bomb (5/day) [/B] 3 (1d4+4, x2)
[B]  light Mace [/B] 1 (1d6+1, x2)
[B]  Dagger [/B] 1 (1d4+1, 19-20/x2)
[B]  Lamellar Cuirass[/B] (+2 Armor, +2 Dex, +1 Deflect)
[B]Abilities[/B] Str 12, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 18, Wis 10, Cha 10
[B]Condition[/B] None 

Actions Crunch

Move forward and out of the line of fire. Will adjust if the previous alchemist fire started a fire there.

standard chuck alchemists fire at e should be vs touch ac. Miss is 2 squares to e's left.

 

[madMonk]

Rain-in-Summer

Rain also dumps whatever loot she has collected in one of the carts and switches her cultist robes out for her usual garb (though she keeps the armour). "Are any of you good with animals? Someone should hitch the horses up to one of these carts." Afterwards, Captain Obvious cautiously makes her way towards the entrance to the cultist complex and tries to determine where the hell the group is.

 

[iantruesilver]

The two horses neigh and snort, intermittently chewing on some hay that's been left next to where they've been tied up, just between thetwo wooden carts.  There is little doubt that these have been serving as the beasts of burden.

 

Barhuce and Domino begin to look over the camp's equipment, and while the bedrolls seem pretty lived-in, they may perhaps be able to use the tent.  It's not certain whether any of the other furniture would even be useful beyond further weighing them down.

 

The small stream of groundwater seems fresh enough, and some fifteen feet past the rickety bridge of planks, the landscape of the cave actually forms a small waterfall about fifteen feet in height, which would perhaps afford a nice place to quickly bathe and freshen up, though a swim would probably be impossible given the lack of any large basin at the bottom, as the stream immediately continues to flow on from there, before disappearing between a rocky crevice.

 

 

Ascending a little bit of a slope, Val and Rain are greeted by the familiar sight of flat grasslands as they take a look outside, without so much as a single tree in sight within close proximity.  The rays of the sun, slowly fading into the distance directly ahead, present a silky, smooth collusion golden and copper hues behind a skyburst of clouds.  Looking back behind, the overgrown cave entrance would seem easy to miss, as it seems hardly distinguishable from the rest of the low hill.  Without much of a landmark to reference, Rain is for the moment stumped as to exactly they are.

 

Val Only

 

Amongst the vegetation around you, you distinctly pick out some Wheat Grass, Numerian Goldenrod, and Sedges.  Here and there, the grassland plain is dotted with a little spot of Smooth Aster.  Looking carefully, you even spot a single Prairie Rose amongst one or two Snowberry and Chokeberry bushes just outside the cave.

 

There's no doubt you're somewhere in the Numerian Plains.  The question is, where exactly...

 

In the meantime, Vri's efforts at luring the dog away seems to be successful.  The dog seems more than willing to follow Vri around, now that it's gotten used to the meat giving half-elf who enjoys scratches.  The dog sniffs at a few things here and there as it trots along, occasionally getting distracted by the scents nearby.

[Wiz]

Val points to the waterfall, "Think *that* will wake her up?"

 

A thought seems to occur to Val, and she drops off the packs in the wagon, then gets out her alchemy kit and goes back into the cave to test the water.  After a moment she comes out and goes to the waterfall for a second test.  "I might be able to detect some of the unique element's in Torch's water and get a feeling which direction it might be."

Edited March 23, 2023 by Wiz (see edit history)

[farothel]

 

Statblock

Vrilundass 'Vri' Arund

Female NG Half-elf Swashbuckler, Level 1, Init 3, HP 4/11, Speed 30ft
AC 16, Touch 13, Flat-footed 13, CMD 15, Fort 0, Ref 5, Will 1, CMB +2, Base Attack Bonus 1   
silversheen, MC rapier +5 (1d6+1, 18-20/x2)
cold iron dagger +4 (1d4+1, 19-20/x2)
shortbow (20)+4 (1d6, x3)
Studded Leather (+3 Armor, +3 Dex)
Abilities Str 12, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 15
Condition None

"Interesting," Vri said as she looked around, "we might be able to use those carts or at least the horses to carry the extra equipment we are taking with us.  If they managed to get horse and cart up here, they must be able to get them back to the nearby town or city."

She would go over to the carts and have a look at them.  First checking the contents of the carts and then to see if the horses are okay.

 

OOC

none

 

[Inash]

DisclaimerBlatantly stealing Roughtrade's good idea here.

Barhuce

Barhuce drops his last load of loot into the looted cart and steps outside to take in the surroundings. He glances at the trackless sky and then at the ground around the entrance. “We should be able to at least follow the trail the carts have to have left when they came here, but I'm not spotting it right now.”

Statblock

Barhuce
M NG Human (Kellid) Alchemist (CryptBreaker), [B]Level[/B] 1, [B]Init6[/B] 4, [B]HP[/B] 7/9, [B]Speed[/B] 30
[B]AC[/B] 15, [B]Touch[/B] 12, [B]Flat-footed[/B] 13, [B]CMD[/b] 13, [B]Fort[/B] 3, [B]Ref[/B] 4, [B]Will[/B] 0, [B]CMB[/B] +1, [B]Base Attack7 Bonus[/B] 0   
[B]1d8 v undead or constructs, DC 14 Alkahest Bomb (5/day) [/B] 3 (1d4+4, x2)
[B]  light Mace [/B] 1 (1d6+1, x2)
[B]  Dagger [/B] 1 (1d4+1, 19-20/x2)
[B]  Lamellar Cuirass[/B] (+2 Armor, +2 Dex, +1 Deflect)
[B]Abilities[/B] Str 12, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 18, Wis 10, Cha 10
[B]Condition[/B] None 

Actions Crunch

Move forward and out of the line of fire. Will adjust if the previous alchemist fire started a fire there.

standard chuck alchemists fire at e should be vs touch ac. Miss is 2 squares to e's left.

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by Inash (see edit history)

[iantruesilver]

At Barhuce's suggestion of a trail from the carts, as Val makes her way back in through the cave entrance to the groundwater stream, she notices a few light pairs of ruts, likely left by the carts as they rolled in and out bringing cargo and other hapless victims into this cultists' lair.

 

Quite separately, as Vri begins to inspect the carts and the horses, she also sees said tracks leading out of the immediate area where the carts are parked.  The carts seem sturdy enough to take whatever load the group has so far laid upon them, and the horses seem at least generally healthy.

 

Preoccupied with a sudden urge to test the groundwater stream, Val breaks out her alchemy kit and takes a pair of samples, one upstream from the small waterfall, and another at its practically non-existent basin.  After a few minutes of mixing reagents and samples, she finds that there is no detectable trace of the sulfur and other chemicals that Crowfeather Palace was designed to purify, leaving her to deduce that this water is not likely to be coming from a source downstream from Torch on the Seven Tears River.

[madMonk]

Rain-in-Summer

If and when she is made aware of the tracks of carts that previously made their way into the cave system. “These should take us back to one of your towns. We should follow them.”

 

[ccanary]

T'Sarra Khonnor 

HP 4/11  | AC 18(+1 vs robots) |  Fort (2) - Reflex (3) - Will (2) | Spells: 0/4 remaining

Temporary conditions

 

 

---

 

Seeing the waterfall, T'Sarra smiled and said, "Well that's better."

She put down her prisoner, stripped off her armor (for the third time today?) and then stepped under the cold waterfall.

"Anybody not want to see anything that's going to leave scars, best look away now!"she called out and then started stripping out of her under garments, getting them all washed well and herself too. T'Sarra was a lot of things, but modest wasn't one of them.

She got out, got dressed in wet clothes, hoping the sun would dry them off soon. If they could get the carts working she'd toss pee-girl in one of them.

 

---

OOC:

Swift:

Move:

Standard (full):

[Wiz]

Val watches T'Sarra, confused, "Why would looking at you leave scars?  That makes no sense... but as for the rest, it's probably the cleanest water we've seen lately, and might for a while."  She sets her equipment aside and steps under the waterfall, washing off her clothes first and then what is underneath.  Occasionally she glances at T'sarra occasionally and checks herself to see if any wounds are opening up.  "Is it because of your horns and claws that you think looking at you will cause harm?"  The young woman steps out of the water, laying things out to dry as she cleans her equipment and looks to see where everyone else is at.  "Are we going to dunk the priestess to wake her up and get information?"

[farothel]

 

Statblock

Vrilundass 'Vri' Arund

Female NG Half-elf Swashbuckler, Level 1, Init 3, HP 4/11, Speed 30ft
AC 16, Touch 13, Flat-footed 13, CMD 15, Fort 0, Ref 5, Will 1, CMB +2, Base Attack Bonus 1   
silversheen, MC rapier +5 (1d6+1, 18-20/x2)
cold iron dagger +4 (1d4+1, 19-20/x2)
shortbow (20)+4 (1d6, x3)
Studded Leather (+3 Armor, +3 Dex)
Abilities Str 12, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 15
Condition None

"She means mental scars," Vri said with a smile, not really looking but not explicitly looking away either, "and don't worry, besides the horns you have the same parts as I have...  I guess."

 

OOC

none

 

[Wiz]

Val glances at Vri, then back at T'sarra, "What are you talking about?  She's beautiful, like a work of art!"  The young girl looks at the prehensile tail, "Yeah... all the same parts, mine are just... made by the artist's apprentice who was still working on his technique."

 

Val hesitates looking a T'sarra and realizes suddenly the motivation of her former captor in terms of... wanting to touch certain things.  Did he think that I was beautiful... I'm nowhere near that beautiful...

[madMonk]

Rain-in-Summer

“Human do also have a tail, in some sense of the word,” Rain calls over her shoulder from where she is crouched near the track.

“The coccyx is a vestigial remnant of a tail found in tailless bipeds such as humans and elves. In a sense, we are all works of art, painted with the same brush.” Rain grins behind her veil and returns to studying the tracks.

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by madMonk (see edit history)