IC Area - Chapter Three - "Lair of the Lizard Queen"

[cupboardgnome]

FIRDLE is SO relieved to be out in the fresh air and hopes the river will wash away all this revolting goop.
Actions
Waits eagerly to follow Will across.

[houndle]

Sept 9, 2022 2:26:47 GMT -5 apn said:

OOC On a personal note, thank you Queen Elizabeth for your lifetime of service, God Save the King!

Amen.

Will Darness
Will kneels at Slyclaw's side for a few moments hoping this is the start of some magical transformation.

 "Farewell, noble Slyclaw!" he says, his voice throbbing with grief. "You were a bit annoying at times, but you were all right really. And you helped us out of a few tight spots Now:

As your mortal frame decays
May your soul range wild and free
Your passing will be mourned by friends
And that's pretty rare for a Dhesiri!"

He looks at Glarpy as if daring the warrior to crunch on Slyclaw's bones. Then applies himself to putting on his armour.

 "At least I'm well greased after climbing up that rotten shaft!"

 ACTIONS
Will says farewell to Slyclaw, puts his armour on and prepares to cross the river.

[cupboardgnome]

FIRDLE
Realising what is happening, he turns back to Slyclaw. "Um, thank you old one. You saved our lives, we would never have succeeded without you, and we won't forget that."

[apn]

The Delvers crouch to deliver their last words to Slyclaw.

By the time Firdle delivers his, the ancient Dhesiri cannot even speak - his tongue, like the rest of his body has calcified and he has basically turned into a statue. Weirder still, a fuzz/fur seems to be growing out of every pore on his body. It is similar to that grey mold which grows on fruit that has dropped and turned overripe.

So few Dhesiri get to live to old age that this might be a natural occurrence that hardly anyone ever sees. Regardless, the 'fur' is growing before the Delvers eyes. It parts with a touch and regrows where the gap was.

In minutes the Dhesiri can no longer be seen. His body is covered by the grey fuzz/fur in a kind of sphere which radiated out from his body.

The rope gets a tug, tearing the Delvers back to the issue at hand. Getting over the swollen fierce flowing river.

In the darkness lit only by the moon, the jungle is alive with cries, calls and barks. More than that, the Snee are arriving in great numbers to deal a death blow to the hated Glarp, most likely their cousins.

=========

Wet, cold and tired, the last of the Delvers climbs from the water and unties the rope.

Each helped Glarpy drag the next over and made the task easier after the first initial adventurer crossed the river. All were safely across and can retrieve their items from the sack hooked to Klarrrrchurs belt (Firdles Staff, Will already has his armour on and so on).

Creeping up the slippery rock side of the river to where the grass starts, Glarpy peered over then hopped back down. "Glarp." he explained, then frowned (though to be fair he could be happy, sad, concentrating... all his expressions seem the same).

With the language barrier an issue after Slyclaws passing, the Glarp Warrior takes a single finger then taps four times on the rock in front of him and holds his palm at knee level. Next he taps twice and holds a hand to the top of his head.

Pleased with himself he gives a yellow fanged grin which rather reminds the Delvers of a Shark.

[houndle]

Will Darness
 "Four little ones, two big ones. A Glarpy the equivalent of two Snee? Doesn't sound right. Two in four don't survive to grow up? Plausible but unhelpful." He looks around his companions. "There are four of us. Maybe we're going to meet two, great big monsters in the near future."

[nialldubh]

Klarrrrchur Deathaxe:

Again, Klarrrrchur shakes his head at Will's antics; perhaps he was delirious with the contamination of the offal that clung to him and what they have been forced to walk though for the past hour. The fresh air assaulting a person's sense after being forced to endure such a mental assault has been known to disorientate many...

“let's make for the trees and away from the Snee and then circle around the stragglers and get back to the waterfall on the cliff side and then onwards into the Elf jungle and back to Jepistra. If we can relay back quickly, we can get back to give the witch the flower, so she can save Rathmere. We still have time-limit, and we should not waste a heartbeat fighting or for that matter getting lost on our way back...!”

Actions:

Actions of Dwarf... Ready for war...

[houndle]

Will Darness
Will prepares to follow. He has enormous respect for Klarrrrchur's ability to focus on the bigger task, but for any pub quiz back in Jepistra he might pick Glarpy as team captain. Especially if wrestling in gravy was involved.

[apn]

OOC I'll be sure to mark the talent 'wrestling in gravy' in the house rules...

The jungle was alive.

It came alive at night anyway but now small groups of Snee - mostly the small three to four foot high drones, were moving through the jungle towards the Temple of the Glarp.

Hiding in the bushes the Delvers had opted not to charge in and kill the Dhesiri guarding the bridge. More were arriving irregularly and some patrolled the jungles nearby. The Snee were making a 'big push' to wipe out their blood relatives and close rivals, the Glarp, and were drawing on every resource they had to do it.

Following the map which - like everything else - had stayed safe in Firdles backpack inside the magic sack of holding, the Delvers would come across Snee quite a lot. Killing a small group of Snee wasn't a problem. The Snee crying out and drawing other groups to them was.

On top of that the jungle held other dangers. Tigers the size of Rhinos, Panthers which hunted in packs rather than the usual solitary types, lizards like Dhesiri but without the intelligence who acted in a binary fashion - kill or don't kill (OOC Dinosaurs) and more besides.

To live or make any kind of living in the jungle you had to know when to fight and when to run.

To avoid the Snee the group would have to avoid the beaten path and start hacking their way through the jungle, which would take longer, cause a lot of noise and result in a high chance of the Delvers being eaten by something large (great cats, dinosaurs, six armed apes etc) or small (bugs that liked to suck the blood or sting their prey to death).

As they crouched the Delvers also saw something else from where they were at the edge of the jungle, about to venture in.

A group of Urucks, all armed and twenty or so strong. They were conversing with what looked to be a Snee Priest flanked by half a dozen drones and a couple of large Dhesiri Queensguards. The Urucks were gesturing towards the temple angrily, and not getting far. They saw the sheer size of the Queensguard but they were well armed and not likely to back down, whilst the Snee were intent on taking the temple - and everything inside - for themselves.

OOC Go round (a LONG way around) or try to move from place to place and hope you make Dex/Luck checks along the way that you aren't noticed by small Snee patrols...?

[nialldubh]

Klarrrrchur Deathaxe:

“There is too many, no matter what we do, we sure to attract attention!” Whispers Klarrrrchur, “if we go the long way around it might take a longer time than Rathmere has, but if we try to manoeuvre though the Snee patrols, we are sure to walk into one and they will call for help and we will be surrounded!”

“I say we go the long way around and move as fast as we can in this near pitch black, and wait till we are under the tree cover, it be a hoot!” Hisses the Dwarf, “or Firdle can cast a magical portal spell back to Jepistra; now that he knows where we are going and does not transport us into a brick wall!”

Actions:

Actions of Dwarf... Watching in a 360-degree survey of jungle and other things within...

[houndle]

Will Darness
 "I vote for fastest way through," whispers Will . "Relying on Luck and Dexterity hasn't seen us go wrong so far."

OOC Postings may be slightly less frequent for the next few days due to "stuff"
OOC Will spends 140AP to increase Luck to 15. "Yes I do feel lucky. Punk."
OOC in case anyone in wider Trollbridge-land was wondering what on earth Will was babbling about in his last musing...
worldgravywrestling.com

[apn]

With two votes cast (one to go through, hacking carving and slashing as you go, with occasional sneaking about and the other to go round, cautious like and take more time) Glarpy casts his vote.

"Glarp" he states, which doesn't really leave anyone much the wiser.

The jungle is easiest to navigate on the paths but there is more likelihood of running into enemies. Hacking through the jungle at a steady pace will take much longer and expose the Delvers to the dangers of jungle hunters but with less likelihood of running into Snee patrols or Urucks looking for their phat lewt.

The Uruck party is getting 'heated' with the Priest and his escort. Despite his bullishness the Priest is aware that it is currently outnumbered.

Whilst those parties continue their 'discussion' the Delvers creep into the jungle where they can continue to vote.

OOC We just need a deciding vote...

Stick to the paths, make better time, increased risk of running into Snee or Urucks OR

Cut through the jungle, going sort of parallel but a fair distance from the path. Might come across all kinds of jungle nasties and the the going will be much slower. With Rathmeres life on the line, will the Delvers arrive too late?

[cupboardgnome]

FIRDLE
"Let's take the paths, I don't want to have gone through all of this (indicates his current state of dress and persistent filth) just to arrive late!"

[apn]

OOC So that's two votes for the more dangerous/patrolled but faster paths (and a route you can follow) vs 1 for the safer, slower, hack through the jungle approach. Oh, and a Glarp, which you can take any way you want.

Assuming that no one has any objections to moving on...

AND! Before I forget, WILL is now at his FULL STATS because an hour has passed. Will is on 12/20 Wiz.

Firdle has restored EITHER...

6 Points of Wiz OR
5 points of Wiz and 1D6-2 Wiz because the Staff has a once/hour you can spend your Wiz to roll the dice -2 and gain/lose that many Wiz points. Amongst other things.

Your call.

By the way Klarrrrchur shouldn't write that axe off just yet. It might seem to be not as good as his current weapons but maybe all it needs is a little... wizdom when trying to figure it out...

The rain starts again, though lightly.

Sounds of the jungle - chirping insects, distant barks, roars, calls, cries and the inevitable sounds of something dying are ever present.

The Delvers moved to the edge of the jungle and cut back through the undergrowth towards the path, with Firdle having retrieved the map from his backpack which had been in the parties magic sack o' holdin'.

With rain clattering from leaves and adding an every present clatter/hiss to the sounds of the jungle at night, every strained sense was needed to watch out for the perils ever present.

A nearby sounding ROAR! rang out prompting reaching for weapons, but nothing emerged from the thick undergrowth.

A CRASH! CRACK! CRUNCH! SNAP! of branches and plants prompted the Delvers to crouch and find cover behind trees as something big passed within fifty yards or so, making a racket as it did.

As the delvers rose Firdle freezes. Near his foot is a coiled snake, almost perfectly disguised in bright green.

He's about to say something when Glarpy hisses and spits out "Glarp!" to the others, pointing the way back along the trail though the twists and turns mean that whatever is coming isn't in sight yet.

Something IS coming back along the trail though, and it'll be here very soon...

Firdle glances down at the snake. If he moves very carefully it might... as soon as he moves his foot the tail of the snake twitches and its head moves back...

OOC The snake, stretched out, would be about six feet long and is a venomous bitey type instead of the squish you in its coils kind.

[houndle]

Will Darness
 "We could try shoving it in the sack?" whispers Will hopefully. "Granpa Darness used to say that a snake won't bite if it's dark. He was a very successful snake catcher until his unfortunate accident."

 "Whether we distract it or kill it we'll need to be quick," he adds unnecessarily .

[nialldubh]

Klarrrrchur Deathaxe:

Outvoted, Klarrrrchur shrugs his shoulders, the theory is moving slow and getting home, or going fast, but been slowed by the many creatures one must fight, slowing group once more is irrelevant. One fumble and the whole jungle will be doun on them...

“It near pitch black as it is under these trees..!” The Dwarf grunts and muses, “the last snake I meat was bigger than this one and fled when I approached, they do not want eaten also,” he brandishes his mace and hatchet at the snake and growls, then ones to the forest and freedom...

Actions:

Actions of Dwarf...

Nialldubh rolls 2d6 = 3 +1 = 4, I did not add an attribute as being menacing might be like a gorilla with muscles and it your choice what attribute to use apn.