Red Dead Annihilation: Campaign Thread

"Thank you Ms. -" Nalomanterys cuts himself and corrects himself. "Thank you, Danica. Your healing magic is much appreciated." As she walks away, she can hear a quiet "purgo, purgo," every few moments as the wizard picks his sleeves out of his mostly-healed wounds. A few light scratches are all that remains after the healing.

"Well then. Before we were so rudely interrupted, we heading south, no? Lead on, Mr. Hew."

Smirking a little as the wizard catches himself, she pats his now healed arm before replying, "You're welcome..." Hesitating before attempting to legitimately remember and pronounce correctly, "...Nalamanters."
Chuckling a little as he cleans himself up as she walks away.

Hew calling her Captain felt somewhat different than any of the others for some reason. Perhaps it was because she knew just how experienced and battle tested the man was and respected him a good deal due to that. It didn't feel like just a nickname, it felt like shared respect. Even with a title she wasn't sure she had truly earned yet. This distracts her somewhat as she sighs, pacing and waiting for Mica to finish harvesting the meat from the downed velociraptors. She keeps keen eyes and ears out during this, watching Meili poke around in the brush. "Let's hurry up that To Go Box Mica...." The elf urges, impatient to put some distance between them and here. 

Thankfully the ranger did indeed work quickly. "Find anything good?" She asks of Meili as they get ready to depart.

Once they got moving once more, Danica left Hew alone since he didn't seem keen on answering her questions regarding the local flora right at the moment and instead fell back a bit to speak to Nalomanterys. "Well you got to see a little bit of how we fight. Realize now that we introduced ourselves but not really what we can do. I might have a sword and shield, but I know some magic as well. Ran's all meat and metal of course." Flashing the warrior a grin. "Mica is pretty handy with his handaxes and seems to be in his element here in the jungle. Great tracker, really wants a dinosaur. Though whether to just defeat it or tame it I'm not sure. Oh! Speaking of dinosaurs." Danica checks to make sure her own little dinosaur is okay. If so she rewards him for sticking around and then gestures to the tiny pterosaur and introduces, "This is mine. Pterry. Haven't taken the time to figure out if it's male or female. Not as familiar with reptiles."
"Anyway, Meili also wields a sword but is fond of punching things, though she's really the more peaceable of the lot of us. I'd bet a whole ship that Hew could catch a ring on his rapier if you tossed it into the air and we'd be dead several times over if he wasn't guiding us. Velan and Inete ar-" And then Danica realizes what she had been about to say and swallows it before finishing rather lamely, "Are gone." Clearing her throat she states, "So it's good to have someone that knows magic around." 

"No." Meili shook her head at Danica's question. "I am beginning to believe the healing plants here are actively hiding from me. Maybe I should search at night time and try to ambush them? Can not be worse than at daytime anyway."

She left her hopeless attempts to fill in the healing kit and fall behind, guarding the rear and listening to the discussion. She blushed at mentioning her peaceful approach (the extermination of the pterafolk was fresh in memory) but did not object or interject. 

Ran admires Mica's handiwork with his blade and how quickly he manages to dress the velociraptors. His stomach rumbles in anticipation of having the dino steaks for lunch.

He adjusts his pack, makes sure everything is squared away and starts back on the trail after Hew, making sure that Nalomanterys doesn't leave too much space between him and the next in line. No point losing another wizard this quickly.

"You know," Nalomanterys says after hearing an attempt at pronouncing his name. "I think 'Nal' will be just fine, after all." He picks up his tome and joins the group around the dead dinosaurs.

He looks at each person in turn as they're re-introduced by Danica; he gives each of them an appraising look and at the end says, "Yes, I am happy to see how quickly those... beasts," there's a flash of dignified anger in his eyes, "were dispatched by you warriors. I myself am happy not to have needed to waste my magic on them, though I was cooking up quite a spell for them if they had lingered just a moment longer..."

Nalomanterys smiles - more like grimaces - at the tiny Pterodactyl. "I believe Pterry is short for Pterrance, so it must be a boy." His face doesn't look like it, but the wizard may have just attempted a joke.

"So," He says as they begin their journey south again. "How did you all meet?"

Mica butchers the fallen dinosaurs quickly, keeping one eye on the jungle undergrowth in case their friends returned.  He wraps the meat in palm fronds “This should be safe to eat today, any longer and it will spoil from the heat.”  He packs up the other items he harvested, perhaps they can be used to trade with the dwarves to the south. 

As he shoulders his pack, he answers Nalomanterys as he moves toward the front with Hew.  “We all met back in the Port.  I was looking for a way into the interior and the Cap’n was looking for a crew.  I had already been in town long enough to know striking out to the jungle alone was a fool’s errand so I signed up, and here we are.” He turns to look back at the wizard “And what about you, why are you so intent on the death curse?”

The party converses with one another as Hew charts a course south.  Most of the day passes without trouble and Hew says you are making good time.  He keeps you to the jungles west of the Aldani Basin, cutting across and sometimes following small game trails.  As thick as the jungle is here, there is no hint of the open spaces of the Basin just a few miles to the East.

The jungle is noisier here than at any time on your journey up to this point.  There are calls from all directions and distances: deep, hooting grunts; honking, as if from enormous geese; screeching cries that sound like escaped denizens of the Nine Hells.  And those are just the dinosaur calls.  The trees are filles with more colorful birds than you can count, and great flocks of larger water birds fly overhead, above the canopy, making their constitutional flights as they digest whatever they have been feasting on in the swamps.

Several times Hew stops to check dung piles as you come across them.  He pauses long enough to point out details to Mica.  The herbivorous dinosaurs have inefficient digestion, which makes their scat easy to recognize.  There will always be large pieces of undigested grass, seed and leaf matter.  Through your travels, the only fresh sign Hew identifies is from smaller herbivores... Hypsilophodon, Dryosaurus, Tenontosaurus.  Nothing worth getting excited about.

Throughout the day, the temperature soars as does the humidity.  It's a struggle to keep up with Hew, but none of you want to be left behind and it makes sense to cover ground when the opportunity is there.  The skies darken and the rumble of thunder suggests a storm may break the heat, but it passes without rainfall.  As late afternoon comes, it is still stiflingly hot.

A cluster of rocky hills rise up further West of your path.  The jungle is thinner there and they would provide a good lookout position.  Hew shares thoughts about heading in that direction to camp for the night.  Before a final decision is made to turn West, you come upon a creekbottom.  It drains out of those same rocky hills, the water rushing down toward the Basin. 

Hew calls a stop and motions for everyone to be silent.  On the other side creek, old stone pillars rise, choked in flowering vines.  They stretch as far as you can see in both directions.  Beyond are a handful of other stone ruins, nothing more substantial than partially collapsed walls.  There are also wooden walls and a tower, those these are likewise overgrown and look abandoned.  Hew shushes any questions and continues to peer through the bushes.  Then, one by one you see it.  Moving slowly through the stone rubble on the other side of the creek, its flesh grey and putrid, most of the meat gone from its legs.  A zombie, human most likely from what features are still visible.  Thin vines grow from its shoulder and a tiny yellow flower bobs in the shadowy gloom as the undead patrols its environs.

It slowly staggers out of sight behind a stone wall.  Hew motions for everyone to huddle up.  "We will need to go around.  There are musk creepers in there.  A flower that uses undead as potting soil and protection.  There's no way to know how many flowers, or how many zombies that have in there with them.  It's not worth the risk or the fight.  I suggest we head back up to those hills for the night, then work West until we can bypass these ruins entirely."

Ran watches the flower zombie disappear from sight and then raises an eyebrow at Hew as he explains what's going on.

"Crikey, a flower did that?" Ran asks, looking back at the ruins. He shakes his head and looks around the forest. "This whole island should be burned and salted."

He sighs and nods at the suggestion of going back up into the hills.

"Anything up sounds sweet to me."

“The whole island doesn’t need to be burned, but these things are parasites on the jungle and its creatures.”  Mica responds back to Ran, warily watching the zombie and looking for any sign of the musk creepers Hew mentioned. "We don't have time to clean up the entire jungle.  Avoiding these ruins and heading to those rocky hills sounds good to me, we will have better lines of sight from up there.  Any idea what this place used to be?" Mica looks to Hew.

Meili's curiosity about the ruins died the moment she saw the blooming zombies. "I'm beginning to understand the "cleanse it with fire" motto of some holy warriors. I feel sympathetic to even the Order of the Gauntlet now. Right now, fire and salt look like the only way."

She looked back in the direction of the hills Hew motioned towards, did not see them behind the trees but nodded. "Let's get to the hills then."

(Before arriving at the ruins) Nalomanterys answers Mica's question matter-of-factly while fiddling with the ends of his long blue scarf, "A wizard is a river to his or her people, Mr. Mica." Without removing it from around his neck, he pulls the scarf tight - it's always kept quite snug - and rewraps it in a way that might be considered fashionable on the Sword Coast, then continues: "Truly, I am perplexed as to why only the Thayans are out here in force. But alas, we will have to make do. I have no doubt that we few will be able to break this curse once we find it."

(At the ruins) Nalomanterys frowns at the wandering zombies. "The poor fools." He watches the wandering undead for a short before following the group uphill to the suggested camping spot. Before going to bed, Nalomanterys will set up an alarm around the perimeter of the camp, or at least around the bedrolls, so that it will audibly ring out if anyone besides the party members crosses the threshold. 

Hew shakes his head at Mica.  "The old stone ruins?  It's anyone's guess.  The jungle is full of them.  No doubt we've walked through a ruin or two already and not noticed, the stone blocks swallowed by the roots of trees or buried in clinging vines.  At one time, this area had been secured and used as a camp for hunters and trappers of the deep jungle," he points and the decaying wood structures, "But even that was fully abandoned decades ago."

You backtrack a short ways and then cut west toward the higher ground.  It is slower going this route, as you must wait for the slower and more heavily armored members of the expedition to clamber up each rise, and the sun continues to sink towards the horizon.  At one point Hew pauses to point out a long, thin snake hanging down from the branches above.  It is an almost fluorescent lime green color - and deadly venomous according to the one-armed dwarf.  The snake has no more interest in tangling with you than you with it, and it slowly retreats back up into the trees.  As you climb higher into the hills, you begin to encounter more and more gaps in the canopy, where sunlight allows more diverse plantlife on the forest floor.  Still, however, there are none of the herbs Meili is looking for.

Eventually you come to a boulder, 40' tall, with a set of crude steps carved into the side.  Hew leads the way up, checking for footing and for traps, and then signals that it is safe.  At the top, a great cleft in the boulder provides enough soil for a pair of macadamia trees to grow, granting some cover from above.  Hew quickly starts a small fire while there is still daylight and he and Mica prepare the velociraptor cuts.  Those who partake, find it a substantial upgrade over the rat-like meat of the dimetrodon [Nalomanterys was spared that culinary delight...].  Though still very gamey, it is reminiscent of greasy, dark meat turkey.  There are enough ripe macadamia nuts to satisfy anyone not interested in dinosaur.

Though not as high as the great plateau at M'bala, this campsite nevertheless affords a good outlook upon the lands around you.  You can't quite see into the Basin from here, but you can make out where the jungle canopy ends suddenly.  Speaking of the plateau, some of you might be disheartened to see how close it still looks to the North, even after a hard day's march.  You have only a brief time to take in the view, however, before twilight and then darkness settles in.  With the setting of the sun, Danica casts the spell upon the fetish as instructed... in theory granting protection against the Sewn Sisters.  Hew stamps out the fire to conceal your presence, mostly in case of any remaining, vengeful Pterafolk on the wing tonight.  The previous thunderclouds have broken up and passed to the East, revealing a clear sky full of stars.  One of the volcanos in the Peaks of Flame is ejecting lava tonight, looking like a tiny orange moon illuminating the Southeast horizon.  As you rest your sore feet and muscles and look up at the sky, it is almost peaceful.

Nalomanterys sets his alarm and the party arranges a watch.  The night passes without incident.  With the dawn, the party wakes refreshed and recommitted to their mission.  And they have reached LEVEL FOUR.

Ran wakes in the morning feeling more rested than he has since they left the port. Maybe he's finally adapting to life in the jungle.

He looks over at the bird and smiles. 

"Maybe we'll actually manage to get out of this grotty jungle."

Once the others are up and ready, he helps break camp and hefts his pack on his shoulder along with the other gear he usually takes, nodding again to himself as it all feels just a little easier.

"Hopefully the rest of the day is as good as last night."

"We can always hope." Meili was smiling all through the morning routine (exercise-repellent-breakfast-folding things up). She looked very rested and felt like this too. But at the time of moving forward, she returned to her serious self.

"So, west, around the ruins? Any other special danger we should be aware of? Maybe some known places for herbs-collecting?" The girl did not go on the plant-hunt last night but was very determined to check out the flora on the way - the healing supplies needed some stock-ups.

Nalomanterys spent the evening poring over his spellbook, muttering esoteric words and phrases, and attempting hand gestures with minute variations. In the morning, it seems his studies had paid off - when you wake up, his robes have been completely mended of any cuts and tears. "A breakthrough last night." He announces over breakfast. "I have rediscovered - nay, replicated - one of the spells torn out of my spellbook." He stands up and spins around to show off his flawless, if somewhat tacky, bright blue robe, completely clean and free of unwanted holes.

After breakfast, "To the west then. I am happy to make any detours for herbs, if they are helpful to our success."

Ran waggles a finger at the clean and repaired robes.

"How's that magic of yours with odours?" Ran asks. But after a pause, he shakes his head. "Nah. Forget about that. That would just make it worse when we start to get rank again."

"Very impressive," quietly sighed Meili glancing at her own clothes and immediately looking away. "We are not in very dire need of the medicine just thought there can be something right on the way. Or rather hoped."

Mica wakes up feeling a little more attuned to the jungle around him.  Maybe it was the weeks spent trekking across the country, or the tips he picked up from Hew along the way.  Whatever it was, the scents seemed a little bit crisper and the signs of the jungle a little bit clearer to pick out.  He helps break down camp and pack up after breakfast with the others, slapping on another coat of insect repellent as he finishes.  As he sees Nalomanterys flip through his spellbook and show off his clean robes he leans over to Danica and whispers “maybe we should let him look at that book we pulled out of the pterafolk nest, might be able to put it to some use.” 

He shoulders his pack and gets ready to move out front with Hew, calling back to Meili “We will find some useful herbs yet.”