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[Knave] [IC] Hold Your Horses
Endless_Serpents
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
This episode stars:
@Albino Bunny as Irina the Shrewd
@joshgotro as Malosi
@El Skid as Phil
@discrider as Jenna Fei
Kap, an elderly fletcher and fire maker
Henn, an even more elderly cook and healer
—
You know the tale by heart. This island was your island, until disaster drove your forebears from it. Accounts vary, but details stick out. Four spirits made the islanders long ago. A prosperous age. Then invaders from the north. A war. A summoning of three demons. Invaders and islanders both are near destroyed. Those four spirits now in slumber, blind or lost. Exodus and exile on a suspicious mainland followed.
Now after one hundred years you have arrived to reclaim what is yours by right. You stand on an expansive beach that abruptly hits hills of tall grass, at times reaching above your eye-line. You haul your canoe to a point of relatively safety between two rough, layered rocks just off the beach.
That canoe has four oars in it (d6 damage, 2 slots, 1 quality). The canoe will stay in good condition for a full season, and if you ever return to it I’ll automatically assume you fix it up. You can row around the island if you ever wish to.
Turning your head east, you see a gathering of large, flightless birds. Around twelve, at a glance. They’re intimating, but as minutes pass you’re confident they can’t move quickly. Their calls sound like laughing, deep and slow, like a simple drunk. You don’t know what to call them, and you feel a pang in your heart for knowledge lost. They barely noticed your arrival, they’ve forgotten you too.
Westward, more beach, slowly turning from the soft sand here to smooth pebbles. Extremely far away you see the gleam of green leaves; a forest awaits.
You can’t yet be certain what lies in wait through the tall grass to the north. You know only that the hills rise like waves, getting higher further inland.
—
You all have a middling understanding of the island’s layout. At least, what it might have looked like once.
You’ve landed on what you might call Canoe Hills, for the time being at least. It is sunrise, the weather is fair though a constant north wind pushes at your back, cooling what looks set to be an otherwise warm day. Not a cloud in the sky. It is early spring, or that’s what the mainland calls this time of year, you can only assume it holds true on the island.
You’re keenly aware you can only heal and renew your strength with a cooked meal and a safe rest for the night, so perhaps you might scout first for where to build a temporary shelter… or perhaps there is more than enough time for that, and first you will enjoy the glory of your steps upon your true home!
Old man Kap squints at the tall grass. Henn has her arm draped over his hunched form, chewing tobacco. Neither of them can see that well even by the increasing sunlight, but they have skills you do not. Skills worth putting them before another two warriors. Kap can make arrows and set a fire to blaze even under foul weather. Henn can set bones and sew wounds shut. Her cooking isn’t that good but she does claim to be a cook too. You might need them.
Henn spits, “Ama, Ete, Oho, Uru. Sorry for the wait.”
What do you do?
Endless_Serpents on
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"Perhaps first, a place to rest up?" she offered to the conversation about a course of action. Taking in the glances from the elders before holding her hands up in submission "No no, not like, me doing less work like at home Henn, just we should have feet on the ground before we travel, no?" came the clarification.
"After all, if this is to be our homeland again then we must find a home, even if it is just a cave or particularly large tree, somewhere to sling our sacks and amass rations for dear nana Henn to cook to my discerning pallete," the raven haired woman continued, like usual getting slightly caught up in her little speeches. It was little wonder people grew tired of her on most work duties back home given her proclivity to say so much and have others do any actual work.
"Wherever we set up best have some clean water!", she declares, heaving forward, "Ride over was fun. But this spray just sticks to you."
It's not the only thing.
Jenna's arms and legs almost ripple as she progresses up the shore.
For reasons unbeknownst to no-one, she turned down armour at the start of the adventure, preferring instead to layer war paint over her legs and arms, to further accentuate and super-impose her already powerful physique.
Supposedly for intimidation.
With the boat suitably moored, Jenna sizes up their surroundings.
An appropriate base camp/beach head does sound like the best first action.
Although Jenna probably wouldn't be of help here; Seems like it would be Wisdom to find an appropriate camp?
The only real issue is until you get into the long grass you don’t know what supplies and resources are out there. A forest base would more clearly be made of wood, but that’s a day’s travel from here.
I guess Jenna's a mercenary, how well do these things fight?
The longer anyone watched Phil the more obvious it became that Phil was not used to doing things, generally. His hands lacked the callouses of a man who made an honest living, and even the dirt of a man who… touched things that were not cleaned and handed to him by a servant.
He looked… melancholy, and definitely did not want to be where he was… wherever this is.
Does Phil see anything useful in the sand? A nice shell, or perhaps a crab or two?
"Ama, Ete, Oho, Uru, it is a good day. Will the stars light our rest tonight eh? These legs need work."
Scouting for dry camp is priority.
"If I remember the map then to the north should be some cairns or hillocks in the very base of Where The Autumn's Linger, else further inland is meant as some garden, perhaps some lightly ravaged crops? Admittedly this is in Cloudy Water and we're trying to find somewhere dry to act as our base camp,"
"Were we to make this a vote I should long to lay roots among brisk autumn colours of gold and campfire reds o'er a garden likely decayed to damp, sicking vapours and ruin,"
You’re heading in land. If you want to mess with the birds you’ll be last in the marching order. Nothing to worry about, just affects where you’re at when an encounter starts.
Irina is out front.
—
Irina the Shrewd
At the very least all agree to begin to head in land. It’ll take you into the night to hike into the neighbouring region, but you’re free to camp or decide so set up something semi-permanent before then. Kap waves his cane at you to get started, and Henn requests you take the lead a little more eloquently. You’re taking the lead, so you’re planning to guide them the way you wish, more or less.
Henn mulls your desire over, “Heard tell there was a village or three beneath those gold trees. Could be a good starting point… though…”
She gives a look that has superstition written all over it, but declines to dampen the mood.
Give me a Wisdom save! Target 15. Succeed for the ideal route, failure simply takes you along a worse route. You’re not going to mess up ‘generally hike north-ish’.
—
Jenna Fie
These birds have been forgotten by your kin. They must have been such a mundane sight that there was no great story to tell. Hard to imagine, from where you stand. One stretches out to a full 7 feet before letting out a deep laugh, then shrinks to a measly 5. You realise they’re mostly neck, the body is the shorter half of the beast. They must hunt in the sea and require swift and sudden movement to catch prey. On land, they’re slowly and wobbly. You wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of a swinging neck, but if you knew how you reckon they could actually be an easy kill. Plenty of meat on those bones.
Every time a certain creature is killed in this campaign you’ll get their full stat block—I’ll add it to the OOC thread as shared cultural knowledge.
—
Malosi
Henn takes your arm for the journey ahead.
“Ah, you keep to your mother’s ways. She, like me, truly believes in the spirits. Tell me, what do you hope to find most on the island?”
Henn feels good vibes coming from you. She holds you a little higher than others here.
—
Phil
Towards the birds you see a large, sea smoothed green glass lump submerged in a rock pool. About as big as your head.
—
The Island
The wind dies. It is now morning.
Behind the scenes I’ll be roughly tracking weather, time, days, seasons and crap like that. I got a system, but it’s more dice rolling and clock-filling-in that the threads need to see.
It’s pretty much always a full day to night to go into another hex.
Malosi detaches from Henn gentle and moves to the rock pool. His hand extends slowly into the waters, pulling a handful up and splashing himself in the face. Reaching back in he pulls on the lump of glass.
"this here?"
You make your way into the tall grass with Kap in toe. It’s not far into your leadership that you notice everyone has walked off along the beach.
You’ll have to wait a moment.
—
Malosi
You feel the water rush beneath the glass lump and cause a suction in the wet sand, but it’s no match for you. You have it! Green glass, 1 slot, 1d6 damage, 0 quality (breaks on impact), 20 cp.
When you look up, a tall flightless bird is looking down at you. Its chest fills and soon after lets out a single rumbling thump noise. You’re not sure what that means exactly, yet…
What do you do? Forgot rolls, give me the idea first.
—
The Party
Irina and Kap are uphill from all this, out of the picture for now.
Malosi is arm’s length from a huge bird. Several feet behind that bird is a further eleven.
Henn, Phil and Jenna are close behind Malosi.
I’ll do a map when I can, but it might not come to that.
"good morning little one, Ama sees you."
Malosi inches his way back toward the group and moves to position himself to defend as many as possible.
"time to go eh"
too many big birds time to go
"I don't think she'll be letting you go that easy."
You move back, eyes on the bird as its head bobs in time with your footsteps. It had made a challenge, and you turned it down in the expected manner. It must be the head male of this group, and as far as it can tell you’re some sort of smaller, unthreatening bird.
Success! In the future you can get close to these birds briefly without hassle.
You got a name for these freaks?
Assuming you don’t want to waste them, we move on.
All too soon the grass is shoulder height, with clumps of yellow reeds double that. You find yourselves tumbling more than once into sudden ditches and skidding along muddy banks. It’s clear today, but it’s obvious it rains here often.
Your fearless leader hasn’t exactly lead you astray, but you’ve all been trying to avoid the sticky mud and the thickest, tallest grasses. In doing so, you see that the way ahead from your current position will be across a long, dirty lake sat against a sudden cliff of chalk. Those same hills continue above it, as if the land was suddenly pulled up by a god. Had you steered yourself a little more eastward earlier you’d have arrived on top of the chalk cliff naturally.
Kap signals you all to take some respite on a particularly wide hill with a huge grey boulder on top. You’re surprised to find footing—flat slate steps—jutting out of the slope. They’re concave in the middle, smoothed by past use and current weathering. Once at the top, you can see further afield. There’s a good trek still to go to leave this area.
Looking back out to the beach you see some awkward, slithery thing has already settled into your canoe. A problem for another time.
The afternoon has begun. Expend 1 ration! There’s going to be some stupid and fun rules for cooking introduced once you have found some ingredients, but for now any cooking is jus’ roleplay.
She smiles and walks over to Malosi.
"I thought you'd gone and stolen one of their eggs!", she laughs, inspecting the glass ball.
Is the glass object just glass?
----
Jenna's going to want to grab some chalk from the cliffs when she's able
You take a look at the glass as Malosi walks after Irina. Jus’ a big lump of green glass. You’re right to wonder how it got here. It’s like it was thrown, and the rock pool a little crater. Care to speculate?
—
Phil
Erm… looks like your glass is being carried away. Might have to trade something to get it.
In due course you follow the party up a hill with a grey boulder marking its summit. You’re shown that the way lies across a muddy lake coated in spongy greenery and lily pads. Part of you thinks you ought to lead from here, if only to get first pickings next time… but it’s only a little feeling, easily ignored.
The straightest route is the hardest (A), but there’s sense to it. But what if you all took the long way around? Keep walking (B) until you’re clear of the lake and then turn, that’s probably fine, right? Bet the chalk cliff slopes down at some point, or the land rises up to meet it, soon enough.
Orange is grass above your head height. You could always veer off and avoid that too.
“Well we obviously shouldn’t go through the water or the tall grass… sounds wet and dangerous, respectively. Let’s just follow this path and see where it leads. Also, Jenna…it was nice of you to retrieve the glass I found but you really don’t need to carry it for me… I can take it!”
He gives an attempt at a smile, which ends up just looking a bit awkward.
Don’t worry, I’ll track it.
Thanks for playing so far!
“My eyes aren’t what they used to be…”, Kap confides, “But I think that grass is rustling over yonder, and there’s not a bit of breeze.”
He’s looking eastward, south of the lake.
There’s a pause as you follow his outstretched cane. Nothing. Then a sudden rush of a pheasant taking to the air!
“Just a bird.”, Henn offers.
The pheasant lands in the mud of the lakeside, then takes a sharp turn away from it. Soon it finds itself amongst the grass again, though now in a shorter, thinner patch; still visible to you all.
What’s the plan gang?
Most rounded rocks are found at the beach or at the bottom of riverbeds, so perhaps it was weathered by the ocean?
But wouldn't it have smashed?
And how does the sea spit it out, when the glass isn't buoyant?
Unless it was the -land- that spat it out, but how does it get round then?
Perhaps something large took it from the seabed, and finding it a rock, then spat it out on the beach?
..
Jenna looks up as Phil rouses her from her reverie.
"Hmm?"
She smirks, and hands Phil the ball.
"Well, if we're well scared of the grass, then I'm going to need two hands for this"
She unsheathes her longsword before moving around the lake.
Then cutting wide low arcs, she quickly chops the grass down to a rough hip height.
"Best to see what we're stepping on."
Jenna is now cutting a path along B.
She's headed to the chalk cliffs, although she doesn't much like her chances of climbing it unassisted.
Should be good to walk with it on her flank at least, and she can grab some chalk from a likely outcrop for later.
I used to have people to do this for me… what a bother.
When in range he waits for a good shot at the pheasant and prepares to take it
Malosi watches Phil move to take down some food.
"dinner there eh Phil?", with a wink.
Malosi makes himself small in the tall grass.
"Ama come shine."
"Eh, didn't see you on huntin' duty," she said rather dismissively.
"I got a bit lost in the weeds but reckon I could find us a camp among the dryer patches here, that or we push forwards to the north proper, explorers and all that,"
Geth roll d20+5 for crossbow attack
Geth roll 1d8 for damage
You’re definitely on to something. Sea smoothed, but why didn’t it crack? …perhaps because it wasn’t fragile at the time… because it was so hot at the time it was near melting… You’re not exactly sure. But you are sure it’s just glass.
You make north, heading by another hill with a boulder on top. Eyes to the lake, and after a moment the view of several skeletons picked clean beneath the surface mere feet from the shore. About six, you think. Barely a scrap of cloth remains on them.
Beyond that, you see an almost entirely sunken bit of hewn stone. You’d have to swim 10 feet down to touch it. After that it’s simply the gloom of the lake until it reaches the cliff. A short swim, one you’re more than capable of.
Even without passing into the lake, or heading further east, you claim a chunk of chalk from the ground (0 slots, a season’s worth of uses).
—
Phil
A flume of plumes burst into the air as you take the bird out. It tumbles and rolls into the tallest grass.
Suddenly, you hear a melodious sound, like a cut piece of whale song. It almost sounded like a one word question. You can’t place the direction it came from. To the north, you hear reeds being trampled—you’re certain it’s two deer heading further north.
The hills are quiet once more.
—
Malosi
From your vantage point on the hill you too hear noises, but only manage to see the shadows of deer racing away through yellow grass. Seeds spill out into the air, but don’t get far without a breeze.
—
Irina
You feel a prickling across your mismatched feathers as you look to the back of Jenna Fie, but perhaps you just don’t like the thought of splitting up.
…After a few moments of neither of those things happening he looks around, slightly bewildered.
Eventually he wanders over to the carcass with the aim to retrieve his crossbow bolt and gingerly deliver the bird to Henn so she can turn it into supper, being careful not to get blood on any of his clothing.
As you part tall, thin reeds you are met within inches of a beast that matches your surroundings so precisely that it is all but invisible if not for the terrible, piercing eyes surrounded my a deep black. You don’t move, or you think you don’t move, but you’re keenly aware of the snap you hear to your right, only a few feet away!
Stories you were told as a child flood back to you. Old folks called it a water-wolf, but you don’t think it’s a wolf. It’s way too heavy looking, a massive head and squat legs built for digging and swimming in equal measure. Webbed paws. Thick tail. Fur like an otter, you think. Predatory, regardless.
Passed down knowledge:
- Hunt in packs.
- Thick skin (14 AC).
- Can take down a man (1d6 damage).
Geth roll 1d6+1
—
Environmental Initiative
This is the house rule for combat instead of rolling dice for it:
- By day, the party go first, then their enemies, every round.
- By night or deepest darkness, their enemies go first, then the party, every round.
- At a prepared, defensive position the defenders go twice in a row during the 1st round.
- If ambushed, the surprised skip the 1st round.
So!
1st — Jenna Fie, Irina, Malosi
2nd — Water-Wolves
Phil is left hanging this round, then goes 1st next round.
—
Combat Begins!
Kap springs, as much as he can spring, down the hill after Phil. He spins his cane around his head and lets out a war cry!
Henn spins on the spot, looking for something. She settles for shouting at Jenna Fie, “Get back over here! We’ve got trouble!”
"TO ME BEASTIE!"
Geth roll 1d20+6 to ATTACK!
Geth roll 1d8 for DMG!
You sprint down the hill and all but fall onto a crouched water-wolf, a second before it pounces onto Phil!
Your blade slams through its thick neck and is briefly buried into the soft earth. It’s death convulsing throws you over onto your back, but you quickly jump to your feet. You pull the blade free with a splatter of blood, and the beast is done.
That’s (2) dead.
Selling these guys short here. They actually have the same character sheets you have and thus can fight!
Kap throws his cane aside at the bottom of the hill and seems to collapse into a crossed leg sit, but it’s no fall. He pulls a blowgun from a string around his neck, loads a dart and fires it all in one motion.
It lands far from its intended target. Must be out of breath. He loads another dart.
—
Henn frets. She’s a healer, not a fighter. Still, no harm is even better than healing…
Henn pulls a horn from her belt and starts to blow it, hoping to attract their attention.
Jenna pockets the chalk, just as Henn starts hollering.
Bemused, she turns and finds that absolutely no-one has been following her, and now everyone is under attack.
She quickly scans the battle to figure out whether there's any way she can affect the fight.
She is rather a long way away and it's not so good at throwing.
Is this a large grey rock on the top of a hill, north of Jenna?
Clambering even further away from the group, Jenna starts to strain against the boulder.
Jenna's attempting to dislodge the boulder and have it run north of Phil and south of the lake.
She could try to bank it off the elevation towards enemy three, or roll it exceedingly far into five, seven and six.
But really, she's just hoping to make the enemy scatter long enough that she can get into melee range.
Geth roll 1d20+5 for Strength