BEO's FUN FUN INTRO

[beowuuf]

Oh, would it be possible to get a basic sketch to get an idea for the rough positions of everything? I'm not sure if what I've suggested is exactly feasable.

[raixel]

The barghest slows down and looks around, trying to catch any scent of the dead-place. Unfortunately, all she can smell is the scents of the swamp, the water, the plants, and the tiny prey creatures nearby, especially the grey rodent with black stripes watching her with its beady black eyes from under a nearby bush.
The smell of the delicious rodent is too much for Urrfrah to resist, and she pounces on it, attempting to flip it up in the air so she can gulp it down. She manages to catch it as it tries to dart out of the way, but as she goes to flip it so she could snap it up, she misses, and the terrified creature lands on the top of her muzzle, where it clamps its jaws onto her sensitive nose, and scrabbles with its sharp claws for purchase before jumping off and darting away. Urrffrah is taking -1 penalty to any spot/scent based roll for 3 such rolls, or until any form of healing whichever is first. I didnt add the penalty to the scent-track roll, as you rolled that first Those little jaws hurt, and Urrffrah smells the wet-metal smell of her own redwater from where it is seeping out of the little wounds left by the creature's teeth and claed. Now the trail is lost, and she has a sore face. It is hard to see the sky through the heavy trees above her, but she can sort of see the glimmer of the RA orb in the direction of her left paw when she stands the way she has been traveling. Peering around, she sees noting but trees, trees and more trees. Some of the trees have hanging-green-things, some dont. A few of the trees are funny looking, shorter and fatter with a big bump where the stick-out parts join the straight part. The ground is soggy here, but relatively clear comared to that huge growing-thing area hse just passed through.

As you dont have Survival, thats all the info I can give you, besides the fact that its early evening. If you want to try to get a better idea of the direction youve been going, roll a wis.

So basically you have some options here. Two of the most obvious would be: you can continue on in a random direction, or you can backtrack. But youre welcome to try anything else taht you think would help you get your bearings. To continue, pick a direction, NESW, and then roll a straight D20. If you want to do anything else, describe and roll what you think would be appropriate, or if youre not sure roll a random d20. You dont need to roll to backtrack, as you only went about 50 feet since coming thru the bramble-tunnel and your tracks are still clear.

Sssil remembers meeting a band of swamp lizars carrying rounds of sliced swamp worm and huge carapace-plates back to wherever they were camped. Seeing him with Hisssa's head poking out of the armor pouch, they stopped to speak to him. I'm sure you as a player now know why swamp lizars would stop and talk to Sssil if encountered in the swamp, even the deep-swamp bands that traditionally hav no interaction with Makan lizar. They were cooking a round on a tiny smokeless fire. The whole round was about 2 feet in diameter, and the lizar had it hung over the fire by using sharpened sticks wedged in the ground. Although the hunters had seperated the carapace already, the flesh still had a thin skin of some yellowish parchment-like material. The actual flesh was a pale green, with red veins and odd whitish-yellow strips running through it. The hunt-leader pulled out a knife, and after slicing the parchment-like covering and peeling it back, hacked off a chunk of the done part and offered it to Sssil. It had a jelly like texture and almost no flavor, although it was quite chewy, especiallu the odd yellow ribbons running through it that must be some kind of tendon or muscle. The hunt-leader offered a pouch of spices, and with that sprinkled on top made the thing palatable, if not something Sssil would want to eat everyday. Having only read of the rare craeture, and never actually seen one before, Sssil asked a bit about its life-cycle. The lizars told him from what they have seen, the worms spent most of their lives alone, only coming together to mate. Immediately after mating the female injected her now-fertilized eggs into the male. He stays alive for a few more months until the growing larvae eventually eat their way out, killing him in the process. Although up to 30 2-foot-long larvae may come out of the male, most do not make it, as they immediately set upon each other, with the few survivors most likely becoming prey for other swamp denizens. Both sexes are voracious eaters, and will consume anything that they find, dead or alive. The swamp lizar find them repulsive, and believe than a male who mistreats his mate badly is cursed to be reborn as a male worm in their next incarnation.

Growlgra blinks at Sssils request and shakes his head vigourously, then folds his arms. Like hell im goin alone. He then points toward the long way, or the three of them and the hole they are standing next to. Whatever way, not split up! Hisssa sends Sssil another mental image. The alerted worm has stopped staring at the area to te west, and has gone back to waving its head back and forth, as if it has lost whatever it sensed. The viper feels uneasy, and thinks longingly of his pouch. Nihss nods, and tests the edge of his path maker, before drawing his arm back to begin swinging at the brambls to widen the path. He stands ready, arm cocked back, waiting for Sssil to start making noise so that the worm isnt alerted.

Growlgra pulls that odd folding shaft out of his bag and extends it. He then affixes one of his greenstone knives to the end, and straps that odd wooden contraption that he used to fling the knife-spear during the deer hunt back on his arm. He then fits the spear in the slot in the contraption and flicks a small wooden lever to hold it in place until he is ready to use it. He pats various pouches worn arnound his waist and bandoleers, and then makes sure the bola which hangs at his hip is not tangled. After all this, he looks to Sssil and nods grimly. Ready.

[Ameena]

Urrffrah is frustrated at the result of her attempt to snap up a quick bite. She resists the urge to growl to herself in case that loud creature she passed has any chance of hearing her. She knows the area with the dead lizar must be somewhere around here - she's already been there once, after all! Still, what with the pain in her snout, she isn't sure which way it is. She makes a mental note of her surroundings and decides that she might as well just head in a direction, and if that turns out to be wrong, she can always come back to this point, or close to it, and go a different way until she finds something familiar.

Urrffrah doesn't really know of many ways to find her direction besides running about and smelling for stuff, which of course she's already been doing - it isn't often that she has to go back to a previously-visited location, I suppose. Still, I'll make the Wis check to see if she can find/remember anything about her current position in relation to the spot with the mangled lizar...Wis check = 15 (13+2). Hmm, well that's a bit better than some of my recent rolls . Erm, I'll make a random d20 roll as well in case the Wis check doesn't turn up anything - if she can't discern anything further about her surroundings, she'll go ahead with her flimsy plan as outlined in the IC above . Random d20 = pff, 9 .

[beowuuf]

Sssssil immediately cringes as he thinks he has insulted Growlgra. He'd only thought that Growlgra would be able to track Urrffrah better, time probably being of the essence when tracking their...enthusiastic...friend. He quickly nods and adjusts his plan, gesturing for Grolwgra to follow Nilss quickly. Ssssil also tries to give an extra spin to it, indicating for Growlgra to look around as he does. Follow Nilss. Protect him.

Ssssil feels Hissssa's fear. It would be best if Hissssa could stay and watch for the worm's reactions, but Ssssil coulnd't ask that of his small friend. Ssssil imagines Hissssa rushing back as fast as possible and jumping in to Ssssil's pouch.

Sssssil gestures for the two to look at him. He points to the worm, and lifts up a single finger, then gestures again as if he is counting off his finger. Only one. He then points to the worm, and mimes with his arm the worm slowly looking around. Searching again.

Ssssil then feels subconscious. However, he musters himself up, and after both nodding to the readiness of the others, and a few voice crackling false starts, he yells loudly and starts waving his weapons around, randomly hacking at nearby fauna.


Lol, I'd roll for the attempt, but I seem to recall a 2 still floating around

[raixel]

Map coming up with next post.

[raixel]

Alright, I threw this map together in like 5 mins. Obviously there is more trees, but since its a top down view, you wouldnt be able to see anything if I put trees in. So the "wall of bushes" is represented by the trees. From what Sssil can see, the lines are where the hole you all are peering in goes and Urrffrah is somewhere on the other side. http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3472/screen1jn.png

Urrffrah looks around to try and catch her bearings and suddenly hears Sssil yelling at the top of his lungs and what sounds like him banging on a tree. Well, obviously, that is where she came from. So, she looks around again. She knows when she was at the wag-things, they were heading toward the place where the RA orb sleeps every day. And when they found the dead things, eveyone walked so the RA orb was on their right paws, sort of, to get back to the wag-things. So it seems to her, if she walked toward where the RA orb sleeps while kind of keeping it on her left paw at the same time, she might be getting closer. The noises behind her grow louder and the unknown creature roars loudly a few times. There is pandemonium back there, and between the banging, loud yelling and roars, it seems the creature might have found her friends.

I'm not gonna advance you, just in case Urrffrah is interested enough in the sounds to go back and look. If not, I gave you a hint to decide which way to go. State a general compass direction if you want to head off that way.

Sssil calls Hisssa back, and within a minute the snake appears out of the wall of brambles, lsithering quickly towards Sssil and into his pouch. He seems relieved to be away from the loud scary creature. Everyone readies their weapons, and nods at Sssil's explanation of what Hisssa saw. Growlgra looks thoughtful for a second, then points to his eyes, then closes them. It can't see us. Then he points to his ears and then to Hisssa Maybe uses vibrations? Nihss brings his pathmaker down on the edges of the hole, effortlessly widening it with a few swipes of the weapon as Sssil yells as loud as he can and beats on a nearby tree trunk with the hilt of his sword. Inside the bushes, the gurgling roar sounds again, loudly. There is a thrashing sound coming from the area behind the round tunnel through the bushes, as if the creature is throwing itself at the thick wall of foliage.

"I be finishing this soon! Be giving me a half-minute!" Nihss says, keeping his voice low so as not to over-ride Sssil's yells. True to form, the swamp-lizar's weapom effortlessly slices through the tangled branches and vines with each swing. However, the crashing noise of the worm is getting louder. Either it is using its large size to break through the branches, or it is moving through its entry hole.

Growlgra runs over so he is standing about 20 feet south of the worm's entry hole. He signals to Sssil, to continue, then he starts jumping up and down and howling at the top of its lungs. Two sounds! Confuse it maybe? The thrashing noise stops for a second, obviously as the creature is trying to get its bearings. Then it starts up again, even louder. Growlgra yelps in surprise and signals to Sssil by opening and closing his arms as if to mime a giant maw. I see it moving in tunnel!

Alright, its working, but Nihss needs more time to cut through. Barring anything weird happening, it will take him 5 rounds, less if he gets help from anyone with a suitable implement (any slashing weapon larger than tiny)

[Ameena]

Urrffrah's ears twitch back in the direction she came from. For some reason it sounds like those she's left behind are maknig noise at...whatever it was she already ran past. Well, she knows by now that Sssil and Growlgra are both good hunters. Or at least, she guesses Growlgra is, since she's so far only tracked with him and hasn't seen him attempt to make a kill. Either way, they both know what they're doing in a place like this. And she presumes Nihss does too, since he's from this sticky-ground place as well, somewhere. So whatever they're doing, they must have a good reason for it and aren't just messing around wasting time. It gives her a bit longer to work out where she is, anyway.
She looks up toward the Bright Eye and decides she may as well work from its position in order to go the right way, allowing for the fact that it's moved a bit since the last time she went to the spot she's looking for.

Basically, "Pff, they're experienced swamp-hunter types. Whatever they're up to, I'm sure they know what they're doing and while they're doing it, I've got a bit longer in which to find this bloody crime scene again" . Hopefully if the wind hits the right direction, Urrffrah will be able to smell the place a mile off. Stupid overgrown swamp with its stupd getting-in-the-way bushes, lol.

[beowuuf]

Forgot to say, loved all the stuff about the worm composition/mating cycle earlier Raixel!


Ssssil had wondered about movement already, and nods at Growlgra's own thoughts on the creature using senses other than sight. The lizar makes sure he thumps the ground and bangs solid things as much as yelling, in case its drawn by movement of 'deeper' sounds

Ssssil considers the thought of Grolwgra making noise for the moment, then shakes his head. He points to Growlgra, then cups where his ear would be if he had ears like the bika, and then then points to the bushes. He mimes the worm bursting out by holding on hand up to his other flailing arm. He points to Growlgra again, and makes an exaggertate motion of Grolwgra moving backwards on Nilss side. He then points to both himself and Grolwgra and mimes throwing items at the thing.

Ssssil then holds up a pausing motion and points to the hole, and mimes his arm flailing vertically out of his cupped other hand. He then makes a motion of himself moving forwards opposite where Growlgra was standing, and exagerated a movement to Growlgra and then the other side of the hole. He then made wild motions as if attacking the creature in the hole.

Hopefully, either way, they could drive the thing back if - or rather when - it emerged. Ssssil then realised he needed to keep up his noises, and started stamping and flaling again, even as he slowly moved to be in a better position in case the worm came out of the hole.


Lol, is this payback for me putting Petal through the worm puzzle in your own start up thread? :p Anyway, that's Ssssil's 'plan'. He might need to look for some rocks or something since he only had one hand axe to throw should the worm come through the bushes. Let me know if I need to ready an action by the worm hole in order to catch the worm before it emerges out of there - should it come from there. Also, do I need any perception rolls for anything?

[raixel]

Thanks. In case you havent figured from the weird parasite stuff I drop in the web thread, I find gross parasites fascinating. Although I havent found a species that does that to itself to raise offspring there is plenty of parasitic wasps that do that to other insects. i recently watched an elapsed time thing of like 30 wasp larvae chewing their way out of a caterpillar and the idea for how DM worms reproduce was born. Theres a story in the OOC thread about why I think this stuff is so cool. I saw it in real life once!

And yes, reaady an action if you want to try and catch it. There is that 2 floating around I havent used yet, so if you need a spot, im just gonna use it. Thats probably why Growlgra can see it and you cant, hmm? . If you want to look for something suitable to throw at it, ill be nice and let you roll a spot. And although I had planned an encounter with a swamp-worm for a while, the *lovely* giant worm fight you put Petal through did come to mid. Hey, at least theres no pits!

The bushes surrounding the edge of the worm's tunnel start shaking. Growlgra quiets down when he watches Sssil's motions but seems really confused as to what the tracker wants him to do. Now that there is only Sssil's noise, the tracker can see by the shaking bushes that the worm has zeroed in on him. Unfortunately for it, the creature isn't intelligent enough to go through the tunnel, which is closer to where Growlgra is than Sssil. Instead, it is tearing its way through the bushes. Growlgra reaches down and scoops up a rock, then runs so he is about 10 feet down and 15 feet back from the bushes on the east side of the worms hole. He turns and looks at Sssil, then shrugs. Don't understand. I go here.

After about 10 seconds of crashing, the bushes directly to the left of the hole explode outward in a burst of shredded foliage, followed by a circular gnashing maw. This is the first time Sssil has ever seen a living worm with his own eyes, and the thing is horrifying. Its blunt head ends in a flat circular maw ringed in gnashing long fangs that open and close spasmodically, bits of its previous meal and the branches it was tearing through dropping out. A little ways behind the mouth, two stubby pincher-like arms are attached to the creature's underside. They wave around in the air as the worm swings its head back and forth. Its carapace is a dull greenish-brown and covered in rotting plants and bits of swamp slime that have tangled in its long spines. Stiff black hairs stick out from in between the spines occasionally, becoming more prevalant towards the creature's smooth-carapaced head. These, and not the two orangeish lumps that are primative eyes located on the top of the head, are obviously what the creature uses to sense its environment. The creature must be at least 8 feet long, and about 2 feet across, although fortunately for the party the rest of it is still caught within the bushes.

Growlgra takes aim and throws his rock to divert the worm's attention from Sssil so he can get into place to hit the thing. The rock sails over the back of the beast, although as it disturbes the air near one of the hairs, the worm rears up, twisting itself around to slap about a foot above its back, before waving its head back and forth again, obviously trying to zero in on the loud noises so it can figure out where to go.

Nihss looks around at the thing protruding from the bushes near him. "Be keeping it off me!" he says quietly as he madly hacks through the bushes. He is a few feet in now, and tries to ignore the huge presence at his side.

K, so I found a use for that 2! You totally flubbed explaining what you wanted to Growlgra, so he did what he thought you wanted. I'll post a map to show you generally what happened. I have no idea where you are, so next post give me a coordinate based on the map and i'll place you. The worm is still really confused, so you have one more round to act before init gets rolled, so just roll it now. I re-did the map cuz I acidentally closed maptools w/o saving. Its basically the same though. http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7286/screen2yi.png

Urrffrah runs through the swamp, ignoring the sounds and yells of her companions as wahtever-it-was took offense to their presence. She has no idea if the way hse is going is the right way, but after some time of moving through the endless hot and muggy swamp she smells the scent of something dead. Perhaps this is the place although the amount of death-smell seems to be less than would be caused by the amount of redwater and inside parts all over the bare spot on the ground in the spot she is trying to find. Turning to face that way, she sees trees, green hanging things, and something, or a few somethings moving through the foliage up ahead. That is definately where the smell is coming from though.

[Ameena]

Urrffrah can't help but wonder whether she's gone the right way - after all, there are probably quite a lot of dead things in this place, and she's only after a particular one. Still, she might as well investigate this one, she supposes.
She pauses for a few moments and looks around at the green stuff, trying to see if the shapes of any of it seem familiar. She also takes a more careful sniff to try and work out what it is that she's approaching.

Wis check to try and see if Urrffrah has been here before, by looking at the structures of the plants as landmarks = 8 (6+2), grr what is it with the crappy rolls atm . And a Spot check to work out what's ahead (both the dead-body smell and whatever it is that's moving) = 20 (13+7). That's better . Note that Urrffrah isn't advancing for now - if this isn't the dead body she's after and it's currently being nommed by some local scavenger(s) like whatever that worm was feasting on, there'll be no need for her to disturb them.

[beowuuf]

Aww, Grolwgra's ended up where Ssssil expected to be. Ssssil will five-foot step to J10 then and start trying to lay the hurt on the creature. Full-round attack so he can flail with off-hand (hand axe) and main weapon (short sword). Init 13, main attack 3, off hand 12.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3601607/


Sssssil looked on as Grolwgra seemed, for once, to not understand his friend. Perhaps Ssssil hadn't waved his arm enough? At least Nilss missed it. Making sure Hissssa was secure, Ssssil was suddenly surprised by the worm exploding from the undergrowth. Growlgra's throw gave Ssssil a moment to regroup. he started banging on his shield and rushed at the thing, to block the way to Nilss.

Although, of course, that meant he was also attracting attention in the direction of Nilss.

Still, Ssssil was committed now, and he started yelling again and swung his sword and axe at the most sensative appendages of the worm, trying to recall all that he had been told about the creatures insides and outsides.

[raixel]

Urrffrah looks around, trying to see if anything looks like things she recognized. Unfortunatelyy in this swamp, everything looks the same, just trees, trees with big leaves and some trees with green hangy bits like fure, others with bigger ones that look like the things she used to wrap around Nihss' forepaws. She wonders for a brief second how the lizar find their way around in this mess of growing things. Perhaps thats why they are constantly stopping and making mouth noises at each other, they were trying to find there way arond Not getting any help there, she turns her muzzle to the scent of dead-flesh and scents the air.

The scent of dead flesh hits her. Whatever is making the scent, it has been dead from at least the time of short-shadows. She also smells dead things that are much older, all the scents mixing together. Overlaying that is the scent of churned up mud and a few creatures. They smell kind of like her running form, but different. There is three females, two of which smell similar as if they are related and two males,one of which smells likee the two females. She catches a flash of brown fur as she peers off from wherethe semt is coming from. Not seeing much interest here, she turns away, but then turns back as a slight scent catches her attention. In the mix of dead flesh-smell she catches a brief smell of grahhssk that fades away, then comes back as something stirs the air over there with its movements.

Sssil quickly steps up next to where the worm's head and fore quarters jut from the bushes. The creature swivels its head back and forth as Sssil steps forwards, slowing down as it's head points at the area where Nihss is frantically hacking away at the tunnel with his swamp balde. But the closer tracker is a much more temptng target and the huge maw swivels to face Sssil. As he moves, he looks over the creature trying to remember anything further about how the swamp lizar hunted them, some kind of weak spot.

According to the hunters, they hunt in small groups due to the worm's blindness. What looks like eyespots are actually some kind of scent receptors that it uses in conjunction with the stiff bristles to sense vibrations in the ground and movements of air currents so they can detect passing creatures. The scent receptors are designed to pick of the smell of blood and open wounds, as well as dead flesh and mates. The worm will always choose live prey over dead, but a moving wounded creature is the most tempting target to a swamp worm. Although the eyespots are covered in a specialized tranparent chitin that allows air to pass through but protects the delicate spots from struggling prey, if hthe chitin could be cracked or cut through with a strong blow the eyespots are quite sensitive. The lizar spoke of a legendary battle in their tribe when a group of hunters killed a 15-foot monster swamp worm with fire. Fire is the worm's biggest weakness as it burns off the sensory hairs. Also f one or both of the little arms on the front half of the beast are severed it will move much slower as the arms aid in locomotion and also help it to grasp things to bring to its mouth. Other than that, the thing was perfectly designed for what it is, a giant portable mouth. Although it serves a valuable role in eating laarge quantities of dead things that could otherwise rot and spread disease in the hot, humid enironment, the things are repulsive.

The worm twists its head back towards Growlgra, and Sssil swings his weapons at its eyespots to get its attention. Although ithas its head pointed at Growlgra, it swings back towards Sssil from all the noise causing the first blow ro go wide. The second blow connects, but glances off the chitin, doing no damage.

Growlgra throws his spear by releasing the catch, cocking his arm back and flicking it forward. The spear flies out much faster than just an arm could throw it, trailing a thin cord. Unfortunately, it flies to high and buries itself in the brambles a foot over the thing's head. Growlgra growls something in his own tongue that sounds like a curse and starts reeling the spear on the cord back in.

All his excitement has agitated the worm. Sssil can see a thick clear mucus start to bubble out from between its long white fangs. The worm roars in his face, and strings of the mucus fly out and smack him in the face and chest. Fortunately it just seems to be saliva, although it stinks like rat and the erloss carcass the creature had been eating before it was disturbed.

K, I'm not gonna post a map update uz its 2:30 am and im exhausted. NOthing much changed beyond you are now at J10 and Nihss is farther in the tunnel. Yeah, a bika spear is kind of like a harpoon. Its a move-equivlant to reel it in after a miss I'm hoping you guys go to Growlgra's home someday. Ive spent a lot of time on the bikaas a race, their culture, belief, hunting practices ect. Next round will be oficially round 1.

[Ameena]

Urrffrah decides she might as well have a look into this smell - it would make sense that other creatures might have turned up by now to eat the remains of the lizar. She moves in the direction of the dead smell, but does so with some caution as she doesn't want to cause the other creatures to attack. They'll probably behave aggressively anyway, she supposes, since they'll probably assume she's turned up to steal their food. She hopes they haven't destroyed any scent trails she might have been able to follow. She should have checked the area more thoroughly before!

I'm guessing it'd be a Wis check to see what Urrffrah knows about body language and stuff to convey "I'm not here to steal your food, I'm just looking for something so don't bother attacking me" when the swamp jackal thingys notice that she's there? Wis check = 4 (2+2). Arse. I think my d20 is having a bad phase. Either that or it's decided it doesn't like me .

[beowuuf]

Ssssil grimaces at the disgusting smells, and wonders how to communicate the word 'fire' to the furry hunter with his hands full. Then Ssssil realises someone with fur probably isn't a fan of fire.

The previous idea of Grolwgra's comes to Ssssil's mind as he realises how big and dangerous the worm is. Perhaps they can confuse the creature with multiple sounds in two places. He decides to lure it away from Nilss, and also pull back himself to perhaps have the two of them can also throw items rather than get too close to the fearsome maw.

Ssssil bangs loudly on his buckler wiht the pommel of his short sword, yelling and waving it around. He takes that opportunity to then take steps backwards in the wake of the sound, waving his sword to make swishing noises before quickly pulling it back too.


Actually trying an intimidate on the worm, however Ssssil's low basic scoresmean I didn't really make it seem like that was what he was doing, since it probably won't come off. Will also try a move silently roll for backtracking (using a five foot step). 16 for the intimidate, and actually 7 for the move silently.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3602865/


Wow, that's a whole move equivalent action going spare Ah well, he literally and figuratively has his hands full anyway.

[raixel]

So I take it Sssil moved to k9 when he backtracked, cuz that would be the farthest away from Nihss? I put you there in the map update. If you want me to move you, let me know.

The worm's blunt head weaves back and forth, going from Sssil to Growlgra to the spear above it that Growlgra is attempting to pull free from the bushes. With a quick jerk, the spear is freed and clatters to the mud next to the worm. The creature slams its mouth onto it impossibly fast. However, it cant fit the long weapon in its mouth, so just bites at the mud a few times before giving up and turning back towards Sssil.

ROUND 1

INIT

Sssil:13
Growlgra: 11
Worm: 6
Nihss: 4
Sssil steps away from Nihss and bangs his weapon on his shield, trying to attract the large creature to keep it away from Nihss and to give Growlgra the time to reload his weapon.

Growlgra reels in his spear and re-affixes it to the thrower while cursing loudly in the bika tongue. At least thats what it seems like hes doing. Although Sssil hasnt heard him speak his native language much, the few times Growlgra used it, there was nowhere this amount of snarling and cursing in it. Once he has the spear in hand, he again fixes it to the thrower and circles around the worm's flank, trying to move as quietly as possible so Sssil keeps the creature's attention.

As he moves he mimes where he is going, then acts as if he is going to throw his spear. Move, then throw. Then he opens his mouth as if making a lot of noise and points to himself, then points to Sssil and acts as if he is moving away quietly. I make noise, you move. He raises an eyebrow and looks to Sssil for conformation of the plan, or if the tracker has adifferent plan.

The blind creature waves, moving its head from the bika to the lizar, obviously not fooled by either being's attempt to walk lightly and muffle the sounds of his footsteps. Eventually it seems to decide that the noisy lizar is more of a threat, and heaves its giant bulk out of the bushes to face this "enemy". The worm is huge, probably a full two feet in diameter and a bit over 10 feet long. It is most likely an ancient female, as it would take many years to grow to that size and males generally only live for two years before reaching their adult size of 6 feet, mating, and becoming food for the next generation. However instead of attacking, it rears up so its front half is nearly vertical off of the ground with its head and maw pointed horizontal. It opens its mouth as wide as it will go so the teeth are all pointed outward and spreads its thin clawed arms wide. It hangs like that for a few seconds, then roars and drops back to the ground. Apparently the noises coming from Sssil are confusing its simple brain, causing it to react with a threat display in an attempt to drive the "interlopers" away.

So your intimidate worked, sort of. It didnt intimidate it per se, but it confused its simple vermin mind enough that it did a threat display to try and chase you off instead of outright attacking. Unfortunately it takes a standard action to put a bika spear back in its thrower so Growlgra cant throw until next round.

From inside the plant-wall, Sssil can hear ther sounds of sawing, snapping branches and quiet cursing in Makani-Zaangaardian as Nihss tears a big enough hole so everyone can get through. He is now to the point where Sssil cant see him clearly in all the fliage, although wisely he is not shouting out his progress with the huge worm nearby, as if it noticed him and went after him, he would be trapped in the brambles with no way out and just a swamp-blade for a weapon.

New map! http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/795/screen2ax.png

Ameena:

Urrfrah takes a few slow steps toward the smell. She can see a pile of dead things, and there are three creatures circling it, occasionally turning away from it, bending down and digging so that mud and dirt sprays out across the pile to slowly bury it.

They have wolf like faces, short light brown fur with black spots and darker borwn patches, eerie green eyes and black noses and huge round ears. The largest of the pack is a female, about as big as Urrffrah in her run-fast form.I'm assuming Urrffrah's wolf form is about the size of a female wolf, like my wolf-dog who weighed about 90-100 lbs and stood about 2 1/2 feet at the shoulder and 4 3/4 feet from nose to rump. Basically they look like a cross between a hyena and a jackal, but are hyena sized. The dead-thing pile is made up of many different animals. She can see parts of plant-eating prey animals, small rodents and just unidentifiable chunks of meat. Off to the side she sees the other two creatures she smelled. One of them has a scaled lizar-leg in its mouth, with its paw still in the foot-covering. The other has part of a grahhssk leg, and it is dragging the huge chunk behind it. The two bring the pieces they are carrying to the pile where they join the other three in circling and covering the pile with dirt.

As she gets closer, all the creatures stop what they are doing as her scent reaches them. After a moment of smelling the air, all five animals begin to stalk towards her heads lowered, bushy tails held straight out and lips raised to show long white teeth. A low snarl issues from the biggest of the pack as they move stiff-legged towards her. Urrffrah notices taht two of the creatures are much larger than the other three, and judging by their smells, she assumes that whatever these creatures are, they live in packs made up of two mates and their near-adult offspring.

When they are about 10 feet from her they all stop, with the two largest in front and the other three behind. The pack stands there, legs stiff and baring their fangs, growling and snarling at her but making no move to attack.

[Ameena]

I dunno - a wolf-form barghest is presumably at least as big as a normal wolf. I think somewhere I've read they're the size of "a large wolf", however you want to interpret that.

Urrffrah tries to look past the dead-thing-eaters to see what it is they're burying. Is it the very very dead lizar from earlier? If it is, she has no need to get too close, since she can then start circling that spot, searching the area for signs of the bad lizar and their horrible smelly slime-lumps. She doesn't approach any closer for the moment, since as she expected, these creatures don't want her interfering with...burying their food instead of eating it, apparently...

I'm guessing trying to identify the carrion by sight would be a Spot check, therefore Spot = 10 (3+7). Arrgh, bloody d20 .

[beowuuf]

Lol, this next one depends if you think banging around to attract attention is a standard action or more of a move equivalent action. I know which one I'd (nastily) pick all thigns being equal


Ssssil waves to Growlgra quickly. He then tries to make a worm-like flopping motion, being even more vigourous with it to ensure Grolwgra understands this time. He then makes it still for a moment, waves his other hand, and has his worm-arm (the one apparently already eating his short sword) suddenly turns around to look. Knows movement too!

The lizar for a moment considers jumping in to attack those two little arms, recalling what the other hunters had said. Then again, the worm could easy flop down, crushing him and biting in to him. Instead, Ssssil takes the posturing gesture to be some form of warning, and decides to keep up the exchange of displays. He yells with a cracking voice, and smashes his short sword with varying motions in to his buckler and hand axe in order to create a cacophony of sounds. He also starts leaping up and down, swinging his arms open then shut again to try and get anything like the hight of the worm, and

More importantly though, Ssssil is prepared to rush backwards the moment the worm looks to be going for him. Out of the bushes, it looks really quite nasty!


Sssssil will prepare an action (if possible). If the worm comes towards him, he will move diagonally away from the worm, in a direction equidistant from Grolwgra and Nilss. So sort of South west. If the jumping and banging are only move equivalent, of course, and the quick 'speech' to Growlgra is ok? Otherwise, he will just five foot step backwards just now after his own display.

[raixel]

Yeah, a female timber wolf is somewhere around 110-120lbs. A large one is 130. Males are like 140or so and a large one is 160. Wolves are big, but not like 200 lb big. Trust me, my wolf dog was on the small side of average if she was a full blood wolf. But I'm 5 ft tall and weigh around 90 lbs, basically she outweighed me by around 5-10lbs when she was healthy. She could stand on her hind legs, put her paws on my shoulders and her head would be above mine. Her back was thigh high and when she sat her head was a few inches above my navel. A 100 lb canine looks huge when you see it in the flesh, especially a non-domestic one.

Speech s always ok, unless you're like reciting poetry or reading words off of a wall or something long like that. But just shouting a few sentences (or the equivalent gestures) is fine. i could be really cruel and say you cant mime to Growlgra with full hands but I'm not gonna. You need all the help you can get right now.


Urrffrah peers behind the snarling creatures to look at the pile. Most of whats there is just random parts of various prey-beasts in various stages of decomposition. But judging by the color of the skin on the leg and the kind of foot-covering, it belonged to that lizar whose inside-parts were all over that clearing. Although she doesnt know if the grahhssk is the same one, she has seen enough of the creatures to know that the other chunk of meat that was brought with the lizar leg definately belongs to a grahhssk. And isnce the lizar whose parts were everywhere was mixed in with grahhssk parts that were everywhere, they probably came from the same place. Where that is, she cant tell from here

The snarling from the creatures gets louder and more aggressive, and they start stalking towards Urrffrah stiff legged, with their huge ears pinned against their heads and tails held stiffly outward. They are now 5 feet away. Once they get closer, the biggest one stops snarling, although the others keep up a low rumble. It raises its head and stares at her silently with its glittering iridescent green eyes, lips curled up off its white fangs. Urrffrah feels her instincts wake. Some previously unknown knowledge tells her this creature is obviously challenging her, as it is obviously the dominant female in the pack. As she is in her running form and full grown, she is similar enough to this species that the female views her as a challenger for the dominance of the pack.

Beo, I'm a bit confused here. You are readying a move to move backwards when the worm approaches you? So you are willing to take the AoO? I decided jumpig and yelling is a move equiv. So why not just double move instead of using your standard to ready the move and get an AoO from moving out of the worms threatened space hwhen it moves towards you? (Oh, btw on the map, the worms tentacles dont count as a space its in, only the body. I had to use a carrion crawler image cuz the only other worm-like one was a purple worm that didnt look anything like a DM worm and was all coiled up.). Even if it was a standard, you could still use your move to go backwards and avoid the AoO. So I'm wondering what I'm missing here. Also, how many feet back do you want to move? I'll post once this is clarified. I just want to make sure we're on the same page here.

[beowuuf]

The worm's five foot away, right? Or are you saying it has a longer reach? Ready an action (Standard action) to move diagonally backwards if the creature moved forwards, unless I'm already in its threat range, in which case 5 foot step backwards. The idea is to pull the worm away from Growlgra and especially Nilss if the worm is going to be actively aggressive. So basically move as far back as the worm would move (keeping it five foot away) up to 30 feet.

The idea of readying a move is so that Ssssil still presents a close target now, and when the worm moves at him, he pulls it away. Mechanically, doing everything up front means Ssssil is far away and Grolwgra is exposed if the worm doenst take the bait or keeps up with the threat display. And I assume narratively that's like Ssssil moving away to lure it - whereas Ssssil is really just banging to lure it, and ready to run if the worm is aggressive.

If you see what I mean?

[Ameena]

Heh, Imperial measurements mean basically nothing to me . You're best off using similies .

Urrffrah decides that these creatures probably won't leave her alone, and if she tries to circle round and smell out the trail with them all growling at her like that, they'll probably just get in her way or mess up the trail or something. She lowers herself a little into a more threatening position and growls back, leaning foward slightly as though to take a step forward.

Intimidate roll for "I need to do something here but you're in my way so sod off for a minute or else..." = 13 (9+4). Meh. Hopefully I'll roll a 15 or above on the die at some point soon .

[raixel]

Got it. You are trying to draw the worm by waiting until right before its turn to move, so you dont want to move right away. And in my original notes I had it with a 10 foot reach but then remembered I dropped it to 5 on the final which i didnt bother to look at so I had 10 foot reach on the brain. Alos, it was late and I was tired.

And sorry, I dont know metric at all. You probably know more Imperial than I know metric, no kidding. See OOC for more details.

ROUND 2


INIT

Sssil:13
Growlgra: 11
Growlgra(readied) 6 3/4
Sssil(readied): 6 1/2
Worm: 6
Nihss: 4


Sssil waves his arms and bangs his weapons together and on his buckler while yelling and jumping up and down, making a horrid racket. From inside the armor pouch, there is a feeling of annoyance as Hisssa gets jounced around in his pouch. Although he is annoyed, the viper seems to realize he is safer where he is, as the annoyance fades to just a slight irritation after a few seconds. The ploy works and the worm twists its blunt head towards him. Seeing that he has the creature's attention the tracker puts one foot behind the other and tenses his legs, ready to dart backwards the second the worm lunges for him.

Growlgra cocks his arm back to throw his spear and looks directly at Sssil. He catches the lizars eye, then nods and points to the worm. When you move, I throw.. He then takes a few slow steps to the left, timing his movement so that Sssil's noise over-rides it. He focuses on the worm, waiting for the moment when it is absorbed in trying to go after Sssil to throwGrowlgra moves to N8.

The worm raises its head and sways it back and forth. Suddenly it coils its upper half into an "s" shape and lunges at Sssil. In a flurry of movement Growlgra launches his spear at the exact same time Sssil darts backwards 30 feet, keeping up the cacophony of metal banging on metal as he goes. Growlgra's spear sails out in a too-flat arc and skitters along the ground by Sssil's feet as the lizar moves away from it.Sssil moves to k3

The worm lunges after the loud lizar and the skittering spear, snapping at the offending object on the ground before it focuses its attention on Sssil and chases him down. (worm double moves to K5)

Chopping sounds can be heard as Nihss continues working on the tunnel he is making. If things are going as planned he should be through very soon, although he has not souted out his progress.

Forgot to post map, derp. Round 2 map http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/9217/screen2na.png

Ameena

Urrffrah assumes a more threatening posture, and surprisingly the pack leader takes a few steps back when the barghest steps forward. Her head is still lowered and teeth bared, but she seems to have accepted that Urrffrah is a stronger creature than she is. The other pack members look to their leader, and she barks once at them. They all take a few more steps back so that they are surrounding the pile of carrion and watch Urrffrah warily. They appear to be willing to let her pass, although they might not like it if the strange canine gets to close to their food-cache, as they all are standing around it, obviously in a guarding position.

[Ameena]

Urrffrah is pleased that the run-fast-hunt-good things seem to have got the message, and circles round them carefully, getting no closer nor further away as she starts to carefully sniff at the ground. Since these creatures must have dragged the bits of dead lizar from wherever it was, that should have left a pretty strong scent trail that she'll be able to follow back to the spot...

So, keeping an eye on the swamp jackals but neither advancing nor retreating, keeping equidistant from them and slowly circling round and sniffing at the ground. So that'll be a Spot, I presume. Here's hoping for a halfway decent roll this time...Spot = FUCK YEAH!!! About bloody time! I so totally smelled the fuck out of that trail I'm looking for .
Errm, crit, btw .

[raixel]

Roll a spot, please.

[beowuuf]

Ssssil is in a way....a very disconnected way...glad that he has pulled the worm away from his friend. In a more connected way, Ssssil is terrified that he's managed to attracte the attention of the huge beast. Hissssa's stirring makes Ssssil realise that for once his small fiend isn't exactly safe inside the armoured pouch. Ssssil imagines Hissssa getting far away form the worm, and going after Nilss. He imagines Nilssa looking around foolishly and Hissssa hisssing and pointing the right way to the befuddled swamp lizar, but really it's only a secondary realisation that Hissssa getting away first to check on progress is a good idea.

Sssssil himself is suddenly worried about becoming so much meat to the worm if threat displays become attacks, however that reminds Ssssil that he does have some nicely smoked deer meat still on him. He keeps moving back, throwing his hand axe at the worm's arm to distract it and maybe even wound it, but also to give himself a hand arm. With a complete lack of grace, Ssssil tried to shrug his pack off of shoulder and quickly play with the straps. He hopes the meat is still roughly on top...he can't really go searching. Not when his pack is currently caught up on his buckler, pulling down the hand he's also transferred his sword to.


This is, perhapas, not his best plan ever now he thinks about it.


Ok, I'm not quite sure where the worm ends, so Ssssil will five foot step down on to the L row, either directly down or diagonally back away from Growlgra and Nilss again and keeping away from the worm. Throwing the axe as a standard, and as a move equivalent action juggling his pack and sword enough to get out some deer meat. Next turn if he's not getting painfully savaged, he may try to throw some at the worm as a distraction. Also, if Hissssa isn't too annoyed or scared, he might go looking to see what Nilss is doing Ssssil will aim at the left side of the worm, for its arm but the idea is even if he misses he's hoping the movemernt will make the worm look away from everyone else.

Anyway, attack roll = 7 (buckler means no modifier), so I guess that's a miss
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3608413/

[Ameena]

You want another Spot check as well as the one I just made? Okay, watch this one be a botch to cancel out that crit I just made, lol...Spot = HOLY SHIT TWO IN A ROW . That's another crit! Bloody hell, my die is certainly making up for all those shitty rolls it's been giving me lately .

[raixel]

Well considering the fact that you technically shouldn't even be allowed to do what youre doing cuz you dont have Track, yeah, I'm gonna make you roll a million high DC rolls to even get an idea of where you are supposed to go. And I'm letting you roll Spots (representing your scent ability) instead of Survival to pick up stuff. But as youre not technically trained in how to follow a trail its more like finding a scent, searching around, finding another scent a little ways off and so on.

The only reason i'm allowing this at all is because you've been there before and its not that far from where the caravan was, normally I wouldnt. How far and in what direction, well, only someone who has survival and Track would be able to tell. Or you know, you could go back and hang around with the members of the party who *can* track who are currently in deep doo-doo.

Urrfrrah edges around the snarling circle of guarding-run-fast creatures. As long as she keeps her distance, they seem content to watch her and occasionally growl or snarl when she gets too close. A scent catches her attention as she searches near where the smaller run-fast was carrying the meat and she sees a spot of old red-life-water and a chunk of flesh. It has the same smell of grahhssk. There is also a furrow in the ground. It makes a trail even a cub can follow, and she leaves the guarding dead-eaters behind. The furrow goes for a ways, carrying the scent of death along with it. Eventually though, she reaches an area where the fallen-plant-parts are thick enough that the furrow disappears. The barghest runs around in the plant-place, trying to pick up the trail. The trail is getting old at this point as it has been some shadow-changes since her pack went here before. But she has some luck and finds a small scrap of the stuff that these lizar cover themselves with snagged on a plant with pointy pieces sticking out of it. She runs farther into the forest and sees a dead small-black-death-liker, barely noticable on the ground. Sniffing at it, she smalls that it has been sitting on dead flesh. At least she knows she as been heading the right way. As she circles around, she sees the area of the ground that was mashed down when she jumped on the lizar, Neeezz. There is also the place where the hanging green thing are torn up. She has been here before, she's sure of it.

That would have been impossible without those crits. I need a listen. Or, the other option would be to give me a direction or delibrately try to search for what led you here.

ROUND 3
INIT

Growlgra: 6 3/4
Sssil: 6 1/2
Worm: 6
Nihss: 4

Growlgra snarls what sounds like a curse in his own language and reels his spear back in. But instead of taking the time to fit it in the thrower strapped on his arm, he just throws it by hand it the center of the worm's bulk. It strikes the worm's chitin solidly, and shears off one of the worm's backspikes as it flies by. Cloudy greenish ichor leaks out, allthough the worm doesn't seem to be severly injured.

Sssil throws his hand axe at the creature, but the axe thunks into the ground next to where the worm's head had been as it rears up and roars in pain from the knife-spear's strike.

The worm thrashes around, waving its head from side to side and roaring as it tries to track what hit it. Not finding anything nearby, it launches its front half at Sssil, atempting to slam its spikes into him. Sssil tries to jump out of the way as the worm thrashes its body towards him. He nearly makes it, but one of the worm's spines is longer than the others and scrapes along his armer to catch him in the shoulder. You take 2 points of damage.

Did I mention it has a slam attack in addition to a bite and a sting? No? Oh, well it does.

"I'm through!" Nihss calls from the thick foliage wall. "Come on!" THe worm turns its head in that direction briefly, but then turns back. It seems Nihss is too far away to either be a threat or easy prey, and so the creature ignores him. It sits there, weaving its upper body back and forth. Sssil gets the uncanny feeling that its toying with him. Either that or it isn't that hungry...
Sorry for delay and short post. Busy weekend.

[Ameena]

Well hey, if they thought it'd be a good idea to butt in a giant worm having its dinner and then try and hack it to pieces when they could have just found a way around, that's not Urrffrah's problem . Anyway, there's no way I can ever get Track or Survival, is there, I don't think? So for a creature who's a hunter and hunts by smelling stuff, stalking it, following its tracks, and so on (at least, when there's stuff in the way so she can't outright see her prey from a distance...so, quite often)...well, that's what she's gonna try and do, regardless of whether the mechanics say she can . Anyway, are the tracks of Nihss, Urrfffah, Sssil, and Growlgra already faded away even though it's only been...erm...what, an hour or two, if that? All we did was go back to the camp, talk to Nihss, and save Thessan, really - after that everyone was packing up to move on so Urrffrah headed back this way to re-find the spot where that merchant got ganked. It's not like it took hours to get there in the first place, after all. Anyway...

Urrffrah is pleased to have found the spot where she found Nihss before. Now it should be a simple matter to follow the trails back that they all made when following him in the first place, which followed his trail of where he was leaking red-life-water. She looks around, sniffing carefully at the ground to find the trail from before, trying to remember which way she approached this spot from in the first place. Quite how she managed to take such a different route and end up here first, when before she came across that big, strong-smelling, red-life-water-splattered spot pretty quickly before, she has no idea. She must have mistakenly headed in a different direction from the start.

Listen, as requested = 25 (19+7). Woo, here are all my high rolls, lol . And a Spot to look for the trail we all left earlier when following Nihss = 21 (14+7).

[beowuuf]

Survival is a skill, though it would cost double points if it's cross class to boost it, and Track is trait, so as long as you meet the pre-requisits you can get it the next time you get a trait


Ssssil lets out a less than brave yell as several tons of bulky worm (at least, in Ssssil's eyes) crash in to him while he is precariously rumaging. He finishes staggering backwards from the blow, hastily grabbinh what deer meat he possesses and throwing it at the worm. He aims for the mouth to start with, then simply throws to bash it off of the worm's face so it flops in front. He tried to throw it such that it can start to land beside then behind Ssssil.

He waves at Growlgra, points to the bika, then points to Nilss's position. Run! He points to the worm and the meat then gives a thumb up. I distract it! Then points to himself and towards Nills. Then I go.


Lol, will that work, or is pride about to come before a fall?

[Ameena]

Do you mean Feat rather than Trait? I just looked it up and it says that to track stuff you need to make a Survival roll, so I'd have to have spent at least one batch of double-points in the skill anyway in order to get it.

[raixel]

no. Track is a survival roll. if you are following tracks by scent its a Wis. From the D20SRD:

A creature with the Track feat and the scent ability can follow tracks by smell, making a Wisdom check to find or follow a track. The typical DC for a fresh trail is 10. The DC increases or decreases depending on how strong the quarry’s odor is, the number of creatures, and the age of the trail. For each hour that the trail is cold, the DC increases by 2. The ability otherwise follows the rules for the Track feat. Creatures tracking by scent ignore the effects of surface conditions and poor visibility.

I would seriously suggest you take it next feat.