"Right then, off we go then!" Sam says, eager to put the worms out of his thoughts. They're gross.
"Wish the happy couple our best, assure them there is always hope in the future, yadda yadda yadda, and we'll check in on our way back through again, eh?"
As Muir heals the injured Roc the chest wounds get smaller, the necrosis giving way to healthy tissue, though the amount is not enough to even bring the roc back from being bloodied.
As the group begin to make preparations to leave the female Roc picks up the still glowing coin and drops it in front of the group, bowing in recognition and appreciation it extends it's wings out to their maximum length nearly touching each side of this cave, in a majestic yet terrifying display, illuminated by the coin below it. Hector decides the best way to leave is to keep eyes on the Roc's and walk out backwards.
Once out of the chamber you begin walking once again through the dark until Griff mentions that this should be far enough from the Roc's to not scare them with the flame of a torch.
"Once we are out of these tunnels we should only be and hour or so til we reach the good witch's hut. Do we need to rest before we get there?"
"We can take a short rest if needed," Sam agrees, not much caring one way or another. "But I hope we're not expecting a fight against this 'good witch'?"
Instead of lighting a torch Sam offers the coin back up... Or if he gets tired holding it aloft to provide the most illumination he offers to change the source from the coin to his helmet or something.
After Muir's clarification regarding the eggs on the way, Vin relaxes and follows the others, sticking close to Neferox. He is quite animated as he seems to be having a telepathic conversation with the hound, pointing to the sky and making a flying motions with his hand.
When the conversation turns to resting, he shakes his head. "I'd suggest we carry on, it always takes longer to rest here, and if it is only an hour or so, I can wait. Of course, if someone needs to, that's different". He looks to Sam, "Or if we might have to fight, like Sam said. I'm hoping not as well".
As Sam lifts the coin bathing him in light, the group sees his stoneskin has dissipated at some point, leaving his less than regular undead form now visible.
Sam feels fit and healthy as ever having healed up after the fight, though the wounds he gained in battle seem to have not disappeared. No blood runs from the slice marks from the egghunter's barbed proboscis, but the deep cuts remain in his swallowing grey skin untouched by the scarring and natural healing that would follow the usual fare.
Sam feels a bit of a tickle and flips his hand at it, shooing away whatever small bug may be bothering him. Except... It's not really a bug. That in itself gives him a little bit of a start as he sure as the hells hopes it's not an eggworm egg on his face or something! But no... he steadies himself and tentatively pokes around at the area of skin besides his nose and just a bit under his right eye... Where the thing's barbed tentacle thing managed to squeeze past his visor earlier. There is no eggworm or it's scrapings on his face... But there is a problem.
Gently touching the area with probing fingers, trying to be discreet so as the others don't think he's picking his nose or something... Sam realizes there's a flap of skin dangling. His skin. Where there should be no flap. A goodly sized piece of his flesh which had nearly been torn away but which now just dangled like some misplaced earlobe. On his face.
It didn't hurt. It didn't bleed. It felt a bit off, maybe. Not quite numb but not overly sensitive either. Kind of like a normal piece of flesh just doing it's thing unnoticed... but dangling as if still wounded. Do I bandage it? Sam wondered, Stitch it back in place? Has superglue been invented yet? Have the others noticed?? All this and more flashed through Sam's mind until he finally decides the best way to handle it, for now, is to ignore it. Taking his hand away from his face Sam lowers the visor of his helm and carries on...
Muir looks at Sam’s dangling skin and mutters “Should have let me cut the thing out of you…” he then says loud enough for everyone to hear“Sam you seem to be progressing uhhh decomposing…errr maybe try to mold the skin back into place?”
"I can press on, like you said, we shouldn't need to fight the Good Witch." Elthana moves on up ahead, letting her dark vision see past whatever light the coin, now helmet was allotting the group.
Since she was leading the group, she didn't notice what Sam was going on about with his face, but she did hear Muir. She stops in her tracks and turns around. "Decomposing?? Mold his skin back into place.." She stares at Sam, "What is he talking about? What's going on with your face?"
"Decomposing?" Sam repeats in a tone which shows how preposterous he finds this. "I don't even know the meaning of the word!"
"errr, no... I mean I am NOT decomposing!" he quickly adds, glaring back at Muir.
"Nothing is 'going on' with my face," he insists. "My face is still my face, for good or ill... Just seems that the last wound didn't heal up right or something. I'm fine. Not injured no more. Just the wound didn't exactly close up like it should have before healing up is all. No biggie..."
Elthana frowns, "Yes biggie." Then turns to Hector, "How much further? And should we know anything ahead of time or how we should address her and all that? I don't want to start off on the wrong foot."
Hector gives Sama concerned looks but knows when to leave a subject alone, "we should be out of this tunnel any moment, as for how to address the good witch, I'll do the introductions. She's very laid back her and her partner, there won't be any need for titles or extra courtesy apart from the common"
As hector said, it's not long before the end of the tunnel in the mountain is visible, a beacon in the dark lighting the way out, on the breeze that wafts through the tunnel the group can smell the familiar smell of a forest, unusual to this entire realm.
Stepping out of the mouth of the cave the pale blue vast above rushes by behind them, the 'big down' directly in front, it occurs to few how being technically gravitationally altered by 90⁰ is now such a common thing that it requires no active thought, through out a good chunk of travel the real 'below' of the realm has not been under foot.
The mountain behind you all now does indeed give a pocket of relief enough for a vast lake to have collected here, the lake is surrounded by lush forest and grassy expanses, and as you descend the slope from the mountain the hard crystal slate that you walk upon becomes more rocky and fragmented, the further towards this forest you move the smaller the chunks seem to get until you all reach the treeline where the crystal is so small it is reminiscent of a fine moist sand, something which the trees and vegetation here have found great purchase in.
"This is being... Odd." Griff states with a feathered brow cocked upward, The oasis apparently a highly rare sight in this realm indeed, Hector grins and nods to Griff, apparently very excited and giddy.
Gewyn walks up along side Sam after the others have let him be about his face. "Hey, not that I think you are self-conscious about it, but if at any point you decide you would like your condition to be a bit less apparent, I do have some makeups and powders on hand. Yeah, I know it seems weird, given what I can do naturally, but I trained up on it young when I wasn't as good at perfectly replicating my tiefling guise. It gave me an excuse for deviations in how my face looked."
Muir's head spins with the sight of green! "Hector this is fantastic. Do you suppose it would be ok for me to pluck a few things: a flower, maybe a leaf, some grass, ooh moss? This is thrilling to see...I have felt so....a tree!"
"You do have trees here!", Vin says in surprise as they approach the forest.
"I wonder if there are any Mashall or Vinci trees in the forest", he wonders aloud, throwing a look and a grin Sam's way. He had stayed out of the conversation about Sam potentially decomposing. After all, they were already heading to the Good Witch to get him sorted, it's not like they could more.
Turning more serious, he asks Hector, "So are the trees here because of the Good Witch, or is the Good Witch here because of the trees? It can't be a coincidence right?".
As the group begin walking through the soft forest floor, Hector begins to answer the questions presented, "the good witch is the one who brought and created the forest if my information is correct. She doesn't have many visitors as she isn't part of this isles community really, she's an outsider like me. I don't think she's even from this realm. The broken isle harbours her in secret, I think a deal must have been made before my time but she's left mostly to her own devices unless an important request is deemed necessary.
That being said, Elthana is right, we shouldn't take anything without permission, this ecosystem has been cultivated specifically. We don't want to disturb it."
Birdsong, and insects buzzing fills your ears as you progress, making this feel a lot more like a forest you'd find on your home plane, though several flowers and wild vegetation seems odd, coloured incorrectly or smelling way too sweet. There is a buzzing that flies in front of the group a few times though the source of it is unseen. As you look around a glittering dust shakes from the trees as they sway in the wind. A giggle is heard off to your left and is echoes around the trees behind you and to the right, you feel you are being watched. He tor sighs and looks around "Oh, right. I forgot about this part everyone jus-"
Before the old man can finish his sentence he suddenly cocks his head back and bursts into fits of laughter, his legs move out of his own control and he begins dancing a merry little jig, laughing all the while.
Sam frowns behind his visor and kind of half shrugs when Elthana contradicts him and insists that it is a biggie. "Just sayin' it don't hurt or anything," he kind of mumbles to himself and tries to drop the issue. While Elthana does turn to Hector instead, the issue isn't completely dropped.
"Thanks," Sam says with a bit of.. bewilderment? in his voice in reply to Gewyn. "But no. I mean... thanks and all... but so's long as I can swing my maul I'm good, eh? I'm not winning any beauty contests no matter how much plaster and paint you throw on my face."
Sam's jaw drops a little at the first sight of the garden and all. It's not so much that he's swayed by the beauty of the place as it is the unexpectedness of it. He had mentally been adapting to the environments of this realm and this sudden shock of greenery and all surprises him. "Maybe you should ask Hog for more seeds? They maybe may be useful for trade with the witch?" Sam suggests to Elthana as he takes in the greenery.
As the thought occurs to Sam that the plants remind him of back home, he wonders if they are indeed from back home. Some are strange to him but he knows he hasn't really taken in the whole world, nor it's plant life... He stops and inspects some of the more common / familiar looking plants as well as some of the more... unique. (Nature Check to try to determine if it is from back home, not from back home or a combination? 16-1 for 15.) "What you think, Muir? All this plant life from the same realm or more a patchwork from many realms?" Sam asks, wondering if the answer could give them clue about the witch herself... Assuming it is a herself. Sam is an equal opportunity witch-supporter.
Sam is about to ask Hector what he means but before he can the dude is laughing and dancing and basically acting a total fool. "Umm, you know him best, I guess," Sam says, turning to Elthana. "What's up with this?"
Sam obviously agrees that the weird dancing should be addressed first... But once that happens Sam will point out to Muir that the foliage kind of reminds him of what they saw when trapped inside the Hag's mind and see if that helps him with his analysis.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
"Right then, off we go then!" Sam says, eager to put the worms out of his thoughts. They're gross.
"Wish the happy couple our best, assure them there is always hope in the future, yadda yadda yadda, and we'll check in on our way back through again, eh?"
As Muir heals the injured Roc the chest wounds get smaller, the necrosis giving way to healthy tissue, though the amount is not enough to even bring the roc back from being bloodied.
As the group begin to make preparations to leave the female Roc picks up the still glowing coin and drops it in front of the group, bowing in recognition and appreciation it extends it's wings out to their maximum length nearly touching each side of this cave, in a majestic yet terrifying display, illuminated by the coin below it. Hector decides the best way to leave is to keep eyes on the Roc's and walk out backwards.
Once out of the chamber you begin walking once again through the dark until Griff mentions that this should be far enough from the Roc's to not scare them with the flame of a torch.
"Once we are out of these tunnels we should only be and hour or so til we reach the good witch's hut. Do we need to rest before we get there?"
"We can take a short rest if needed," Sam agrees, not much caring one way or another. "But I hope we're not expecting a fight against this 'good witch'?"
Instead of lighting a torch Sam offers the coin back up... Or if he gets tired holding it aloft to provide the most illumination he offers to change the source from the coin to his helmet or something.
After Muir's clarification regarding the eggs on the way, Vin relaxes and follows the others, sticking close to Neferox. He is quite animated as he seems to be having a telepathic conversation with the hound, pointing to the sky and making a flying motions with his hand.
When the conversation turns to resting, he shakes his head. "I'd suggest we carry on, it always takes longer to rest here, and if it is only an hour or so, I can wait. Of course, if someone needs to, that's different". He looks to Sam, "Or if we might have to fight, like Sam said. I'm hoping not as well".
As Sam lifts the coin bathing him in light, the group sees his stoneskin has dissipated at some point, leaving his less than regular undead form now visible.
Sam feels fit and healthy as ever having healed up after the fight, though the wounds he gained in battle seem to have not disappeared. No blood runs from the slice marks from the egghunter's barbed proboscis, but the deep cuts remain in his swallowing grey skin untouched by the scarring and natural healing that would follow the usual fare.
Sam feels a bit of a tickle and flips his hand at it, shooing away whatever small bug may be bothering him. Except... It's not really a bug. That in itself gives him a little bit of a start as he sure as the hells hopes it's not an eggworm egg on his face or something! But no... he steadies himself and tentatively pokes around at the area of skin besides his nose and just a bit under his right eye... Where the thing's barbed tentacle thing managed to squeeze past his visor earlier. There is no eggworm or it's scrapings on his face... But there is a problem.
Gently touching the area with probing fingers, trying to be discreet so as the others don't think he's picking his nose or something... Sam realizes there's a flap of skin dangling. His skin. Where there should be no flap. A goodly sized piece of his flesh which had nearly been torn away but which now just dangled like some misplaced earlobe. On his face.
It didn't hurt. It didn't bleed. It felt a bit off, maybe. Not quite numb but not overly sensitive either. Kind of like a normal piece of flesh just doing it's thing unnoticed... but dangling as if still wounded. Do I bandage it? Sam wondered, Stitch it back in place? Has superglue been invented yet? Have the others noticed?? All this and more flashed through Sam's mind until he finally decides the best way to handle it, for now, is to ignore it. Taking his hand away from his face Sam lowers the visor of his helm and carries on...
Muir looks at Sam’s dangling skin and mutters “Should have let me cut the thing out of you…” he then says loud enough for everyone to hear “Sam you seem to be progressing uhhh decomposing…errr maybe try to mold the skin back into place?”
((Stop checking out Sam's dangly bits!!!))
"I can press on, like you said, we shouldn't need to fight the Good Witch." Elthana moves on up ahead, letting her dark vision see past whatever light the coin, now helmet was allotting the group.
Since she was leading the group, she didn't notice what Sam was going on about with his face, but she did hear Muir. She stops in her tracks and turns around. "Decomposing?? Mold his skin back into place.." She stares at Sam, "What is he talking about? What's going on with your face?"
"Decomposing?" Sam repeats in a tone which shows how preposterous he finds this. "I don't even know the meaning of the word!"
"errr, no... I mean I am NOT decomposing!" he quickly adds, glaring back at Muir.
"Nothing is 'going on' with my face," he insists. "My face is still my face, for good or ill... Just seems that the last wound didn't heal up right or something. I'm fine. Not injured no more. Just the wound didn't exactly close up like it should have before healing up is all. No biggie..."
Elthana frowns, "Yes biggie." Then turns to Hector, "How much further? And should we know anything ahead of time or how we should address her and all that? I don't want to start off on the wrong foot."
Hector gives Sama concerned looks but knows when to leave a subject alone, "we should be out of this tunnel any moment, as for how to address the good witch, I'll do the introductions. She's very laid back her and her partner, there won't be any need for titles or extra courtesy apart from the common"
As hector said, it's not long before the end of the tunnel in the mountain is visible, a beacon in the dark lighting the way out, on the breeze that wafts through the tunnel the group can smell the familiar smell of a forest, unusual to this entire realm.
Stepping out of the mouth of the cave the pale blue vast above rushes by behind them, the 'big down' directly in front, it occurs to few how being technically gravitationally altered by 90⁰ is now such a common thing that it requires no active thought, through out a good chunk of travel the real 'below' of the realm has not been under foot.
The mountain behind you all now does indeed give a pocket of relief enough for a vast lake to have collected here, the lake is surrounded by lush forest and grassy expanses, and as you descend the slope from the mountain the hard crystal slate that you walk upon becomes more rocky and fragmented, the further towards this forest you move the smaller the chunks seem to get until you all reach the treeline where the crystal is so small it is reminiscent of a fine moist sand, something which the trees and vegetation here have found great purchase in.
"This is being... Odd." Griff states with a feathered brow cocked upward, The oasis apparently a highly rare sight in this realm indeed, Hector grins and nods to Griff, apparently very excited and giddy.
Gewyn walks up along side Sam after the others have let him be about his face. "Hey, not that I think you are self-conscious about it, but if at any point you decide you would like your condition to be a bit less apparent, I do have some makeups and powders on hand. Yeah, I know it seems weird, given what I can do naturally, but I trained up on it young when I wasn't as good at perfectly replicating my tiefling guise. It gave me an excuse for deviations in how my face looked."
Muir's head spins with the sight of green! "Hector this is fantastic. Do you suppose it would be ok for me to pluck a few things: a flower, maybe a leaf, some grass, ooh moss? This is thrilling to see...I have felt so....a tree!"
"You do have trees here!", Vin says in surprise as they approach the forest.
"I wonder if there are any Mashall or Vinci trees in the forest", he wonders aloud, throwing a look and a grin Sam's way. He had stayed out of the conversation about Sam potentially decomposing. After all, they were already heading to the Good Witch to get him sorted, it's not like they could more.
Turning more serious, he asks Hector, "So are the trees here because of the Good Witch, or is the Good Witch here because of the trees? It can't be a coincidence right?".
Elthana is focused. She turns to Muir and Vin, "Trees really? We need to talk to the Good Witch, you can do your gardening afterwards."
She looks to Hector to lead them on.
As the group begin walking through the soft forest floor, Hector begins to answer the questions presented, "the good witch is the one who brought and created the forest if my information is correct. She doesn't have many visitors as she isn't part of this isles community really, she's an outsider like me. I don't think she's even from this realm. The broken isle harbours her in secret, I think a deal must have been made before my time but she's left mostly to her own devices unless an important request is deemed necessary.
That being said, Elthana is right, we shouldn't take anything without permission, this ecosystem has been cultivated specifically. We don't want to disturb it."
Birdsong, and insects buzzing fills your ears as you progress, making this feel a lot more like a forest you'd find on your home plane, though several flowers and wild vegetation seems odd, coloured incorrectly or smelling way too sweet. There is a buzzing that flies in front of the group a few times though the source of it is unseen. As you look around a glittering dust shakes from the trees as they sway in the wind. A giggle is heard off to your left and is echoes around the trees behind you and to the right, you feel you are being watched. He tor sighs and looks around "Oh, right. I forgot about this part everyone jus-"
Before the old man can finish his sentence he suddenly cocks his head back and bursts into fits of laughter, his legs move out of his own control and he begins dancing a merry little jig, laughing all the while.
Everyone make a wisdom save.
Sam frowns behind his visor and kind of half shrugs when Elthana contradicts him and insists that it is a biggie. "Just sayin' it don't hurt or anything," he kind of mumbles to himself and tries to drop the issue. While Elthana does turn to Hector instead, the issue isn't completely dropped.
"Thanks," Sam says with a bit of.. bewilderment? in his voice in reply to Gewyn. "But no. I mean... thanks and all... but so's long as I can swing my maul I'm good, eh? I'm not winning any beauty contests no matter how much plaster and paint you throw on my face."
Sam's jaw drops a little at the first sight of the garden and all. It's not so much that he's swayed by the beauty of the place as it is the unexpectedness of it. He had mentally been adapting to the environments of this realm and this sudden shock of greenery and all surprises him. "Maybe you should ask Hog for more seeds? They maybe may be useful for trade with the witch?" Sam suggests to Elthana as he takes in the greenery.
As the thought occurs to Sam that the plants remind him of back home, he wonders if they are indeed from back home. Some are strange to him but he knows he hasn't really taken in the whole world, nor it's plant life... He stops and inspects some of the more common / familiar looking plants as well as some of the more... unique. (Nature Check to try to determine if it is from back home, not from back home or a combination? 16-1 for 15.) "What you think, Muir? All this plant life from the same realm or more a patchwork from many realms?" Sam asks, wondering if the answer could give them clue about the witch herself... Assuming it is a herself. Sam is an equal opportunity witch-supporter.
Sam is about to ask Hector what he means but before he can the dude is laughing and dancing and basically acting a total fool. "Umm, you know him best, I guess," Sam says, turning to Elthana. "What's up with this?"
Upon hearing Sam, Muir snaps to but is distracted now by Hectors laughing and dancing.
Sam obviously agrees that the weird dancing should be addressed first... But once that happens Sam will point out to Muir that the foliage kind of reminds him of what they saw when trapped inside the Hag's mind and see if that helps him with his analysis.