Yeah. (so Ian and OB dont read my plans if theyre watching this) The caravan was just supposed to be local color (one of the wagons was a bench-seat wagon with some non-noble lizar and other Zaangaardians riding to Makan, so they are getting stared at by spider-people and snake people ect), and maybe get a chance to pick up some supplies and get info about the region. But Thiy(Ian) got such a high dip that he managed to convince the pathfinder to taker her and Artaxes along. So as it is right now, they most likely will be riding in a caravan going toward Makan, passing your caravan going away from Makan in about a day. Hmmmm. I hope you guys dont go riding by each other, and wave and go on or something 
. Eh, I havent DMed forever for nothing! I'm already formulating my plan 
And I'm glad you like the pacing. Don't worry too much abot the time thing. I think it has to do with the fact I'm almost on the other side of the world from you guys, so it seems like it goes i post at 4-8 pm here(usually, but sometimes also around noon) then you post about 4 am here. But at my old job I used to post around midnight. Or something. In any case, dont stress it. I was real busy today and just got home at 7pm, and i still have chores and crap to get done. Bleh. But I'm way too intrested in seeing trebuchet erlosss to put off posting. Chores can wait!
And the muddling through line reminds me of a line in Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. One of the latest books, a char asks what "muddling along" is. The answer is (paraphrased) "getting by, the best way you know how to do it, and doing the best you can.". Sounds like Ssssil to me! My NPCs will get through his low self esteem someday!
Hisssa perks up at the image of himself in the armor. An image of a tiny helm (
think like one of those WW2 round GI helms the Americans wore, but flatter) made out of shell pops in Sssil's head, followed by am image of Hisssa wearing it, and a bunch of presumably female snakes following him around, and a bunch of male snakes looking on jealously. The snake seems excited, even more so when Sssil *pooms* at him.
He suddenly explosively hisses, trying to copy the *poom* sound, but can only manage a sound like a erlosss-bladder ball that kakkiss like to play with int he parks of Makan leaking air.
Thesssan glances up at the loud hiss coming out of Sssil's armor pouch. "Makanasssht guide the spirit away", he says to Hisssa, apparently thinking the snake sneezed.
"Well, before we work on the erloss, let me do what I can for your leg. Granted, my healing is only the art of the bone needle and ointments, and I can't runes to draw the Water of LIfe into a flask, but this should at least help a bit. First we must remove your boot." Thessan says as he unwraps whatever is inside the grahhssk skin package. "Its a good thing to know how to do, though. Here, watch me carefully and I'll show you."
After Sssil removes the boot, the warrior lays out a pair of small silver tweezers, whta look like big chunks of spider web, an stone jar of bluish ointment, a tiny bone needle with some very fine thread attached, a skin of water, a tightly rolled and bound piece of leather, and some clean soft cloths. He takes the water skin and washes his hands, then gently pours water over the wound, dabbing it with the cloth as he pours. After that, he takes the tweezers and looks up at Sssil.
"The first step is to clean your hands so they dont have bad air on them, then wash out the wound with pure water, and clean any bits stuck in there out with the cloth. That wasn't so bad, but now I see what looks like part of the turtle's beak embedded in your leg. This may hurt, so you can take the leather roll and bite on it if you need to. Now hold still"
An agonizing fire shoots up Sssil's leg as Thessan puts the tweezers in the wound. "Hold still, almost...There!" he says, as he withdraws the tweezers, a shiny black inch-wide chunk grasped firmly in them.
He holds up the piece of beak for Sssil's inspection, dropping it in his hand if Sssil wants it. "That needed to come out. Now, we take the webs here, and douse them with this ointment, which has bloodmoss and other healing herbs in it. Then we pack them in the wound. A weird property of arachne and other spider webs is they help the skin grow and stop bleeding, and doesnt need to come out as the body absorbs it. If put in soon enough, the can even help scales grow back".
He takes the small jar and dips the cobwebs in it using the tweezers, then gently packs it in the wound. It hurts terribly for a second, but then a cooling, numb sensation spreads through the wound due to the ointment.
Finally, he takes the needle and begins to stitch the wound closed. There is a slight prick as the needle goes in, but the ointment has done its work and the pain is bearable.
There is now a neat row of fine stitches where he wound was, and the pain is no longer a screaming fire every time Sssil puts weight on his foot, but just a dull throb.
Thessan packs up the kit and nods at his handiwork. "Thats pretty much all there is to it. Kits like this are really common in the markets and at temples, or you could get everything you need out here in the swamps. Just make sure you filter and boil any water you use if you get it out here, the spirit of swamp-decay can sometimes infest it." he says.
Sssil can now make a heal check with a +2 bonus to heal 1d4HP/day *if* he has a healers kit with similar items(1d4+5 hp if anything you use has bloodmoss in it, whether the raw plant or an ointment). Oh, and you gain 1d4+5HP. (Mostly its cuz I think the heal rules as written suck, esp in a low magic no-cleric campaign) I might switch it to survival when you drop to lev 3. Cuz at this point, theres no healing magic in the group at *all*
After packing his kit up, Thessan grabs the rope. "Your idea just might work. But how do you suppose he get the rope around the erlosss' trunk? I could maybe make a noose and throw it, but you'd be resposible for getting it around the tree. If we tie the grahhhsks, they shoul'dnt be strong enough to break the rope. So even if Hisssa scares them, they wont get away."
K, so if you want to do this, I need a use rope, a survival and a con. Oh, and throw in a str too, just for good measure. Yeah, I'm getting images of OB and Ian trundling along in their wagon, and seeing a weird horse-like creature go sailing across the sun like ET or something.
Really nice loooking map, btw! Is that just with the default textures?
Actually, I had to edit out when I typed squirrel quite a few times too. Its my own stupid fault for describing it/thinking of it as a grey and black striped ground squirrel, even though it doesnt have a big bushy tail.
She is amazed. The three hunters carve up all the dead creatures with their metal claws, and then the two that aren't Sssil leave, and her potential pack-mate stands alone. He appears to be watching the area she is hiding. Did he sense her somehow? She feels a strange emotion at getting a chance to communicate with him again. (a human would know it as happiness, but she doesn't so much, being a recently-changed barghest)