Shin breathes a sigh of relief as the tabaxi seems to agree to relocating to the clearing for now, and brings the fire with her, as she described.
"Well said, Silvana. And perhaps one of you can do more with the frozen raptor corpse than I can. I would love to fashion a dagger from one of its claws if nothing else. Yet I suspect that besides that, and sustenance from the meat, there may be other uses for the big lizard's body." He considers further.
"Moreover, it seems unlikely that Euphemia's apparent lack of trust in our character or intentions will be ameliorated by our continued absence."
Shin follows after Silvana, Pinky-toe flying along above from branch to branch in the trees keeping lookout.
Time passes slowly, yet Korinth finds little to nothing. What's left of the raptors aren't worth a morsel, the creatures gnawing on the bones worth even less. The game in the area is scarce too, likely frightened off by all the earlier ruckus. Disappointed, he returns to his camp, finding that the others have moved further inland and his fire dying. Throwing a few extra branches on, he falls on his butt and leans back, looking to catch a few winks before trying again. Perhaps he can bag a deer or a few rabbits before reuniting with the rest. For now, though.... zzz
Euphemia's quiet musings in the tree are well distracted by the reappearance of the goblin and the cat as they return to the clearing. She sits up a little to watch as they approach the frozen raptor corpse. Shin well said that the animal's body might provide useful items... tools, weapons, hide, meat... it certainly shouldn't go to waste. Yet how much more valuable might one alive be than one dead? Difficult, unpredictable, maybe, but...The halfling rubs her arms, feeling her mended sleeve brush over the small sore wound left by the toothed bird that had bit her. I know I'd sure feel better with a stronger critter on my side.
Eventually, Euphemia ventures from the tree, first humming, and then singing, first softly, and then more loudly, her voice strong and rousing, though not so loud nor terrifying as the bagpipes. She isn't trying to ignore or hide from Shin and Silvana, and even looks their way as she hops down to the ground with a beaming smile as the rosy enthusiasm of her song rises up into her cheeks.
"Oh ye Indignites by name, lend an ear, lend an ear! Let him land among ye safe, and all his good proclaim, Oh ye Indignites by name, lend an ear!"
Shin tilts his head and listens to the halfling's strange music, once more struck at how different it is than his own, smiling a little himself.
For once, the erudite goblin has little to say as he points Silvana (and Atax if he came along) at the partially frozen but un-wounded raptor corpse in the clearing, in case one of them is better able harvest anything from it than Shin was. (He personally would love a makeshift dagger fashioned from a claw).
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Atax, seeing the dead raptor, drops the bundle of sticks and makes his way over to it. As he gets closer he can see frozen patches of scales covering its reptilian body. “I can make do with this” he mumbles to himself as he gets down on knees and pulls out his bloodied knife. “I could probably make a shield, of sorts, if I tie some well placed bones together and cover it in hide” he whispers to himself, not realizing that he’s talking out loud.
Atax has advantage and will see if he can fashion a blade for the Shin seeing as he has no weapon.
Your attempts to make a shield fail. Being frozen to death damaged its hide, and your attempt at a shield just falls apart more and more as you struggle to make it.
However, you make a masterful knife. Using on the raptor’s large toe claws, you make Shin a very nice knife. In fact, you believe it’s one of the best you made.
If Atax presents Shin with the raptor-claw knife, the goblin is uncharacteristically quiet, accepting the weapon with an odd solemnity and testing its unconventional weight. His Mage Hand continues to hold the Healer's Kit as he flips it instinctively in his hand, trying to remember how he knew to do that.
Lizard got your tongue?Pinky-toe's usual telepathic derision is half-hearted as the owl continues to keep watch from the branches.
"So," Shin ventures finally. "I know next to nothing about this land and how to survive it. What do we need? Shelter, drinkable water, food... is the raptor edible? And... as my... acquaintance? As my acquaintance, mademoiselle halfling Euphemia has questioned, is there a 'we'?"
Euphemia hums for a moment, watching the goblin, cat, and lizardman busy themselves with the dead raptor. They're intent enough that they pay no attention to her, but as a small and silent halfling, she is used to this. A strange land, strange creatures, strange people... you no less than them, lass. Not a one of us remembers a thing, knows if there's a town or other people... A memory starts to nag at her mind. The music that well charms the beast isn't the only tune I can play. Her brow furrows as she tries to recall. There's another one, one where I can talk to 'em. They may know... well, they'll remember, like as not, what they've seen around.
"You know," she speaks up thoughtfully, "if none of us remember anything or anyone, it might be worth a run to see if any of the animals here remember more than we do, eh? I'll be back."
And, with that, she pulls her hood back up over her head and steals off into the undergrowth, heading for the river. As the sound of gurgling water greets her ears, she can see the trampled undergrowth, the splatters of still-fresh blood, the mud of the deepening riverbank churned up with the clawed of feet of something that looks very... large. Euphemia's head swims for a minute. Not that thing. The big one. I didn't see it, but I'll bet ye it made these big marks. It's the orange-feathered fellow I want to find.Bending close to the ground, she carefully looks for tracks. That one, there, kinda like a bird foot, but bigger and uglier. He ran off that way. The pack'll stick together, like as not. Looks like biggie here was chasing 'em.
The halfling moves off to the side of the track she's following to where she can keep an eye on it, but not be directly on it. And, low to the ground and silently, she chases the trail.
Korinth leaps back onto his feet. 8 mins, an hour, two hours -- he has no clue how long his eyes were closed. Doesn't matter, either. Things need doing. For one, he's got to get acquainted with the lizard and the cat. Second, he's got to figure a way to stow the lizard's bloody shirt. That's premium fish bait.
...Third. Sigh. He has to coordinate with the Goblin. However things may look, we're all stuck here, together. That means coordinating resources. Even if it kills me, he thinks.
Kicking soil over the hot embers of his smoldering bonfire, the genasi strolls casually back towards the clearing where he last saw the halfling lass. . .
Silvana watches as Atax makes quick work with the dagger out of the raptor. Impressed by his work and knowing that they would need more, she starts digging into the corpse also wanting a dagger in case her quiver runs dry and she'd like to make a bag out of it's skin. Looking around, she feels they are alright for the moment, "You know, this place isn't bad, but I don't know about you all, I feel a bit exposed. Should we see what we can find that might make a better shelter?" (I'm liking the idea of the stealing homes from other creatures.. the caves?)
Survival on what she can make out of the carcass: 14
She doesn't say anything as Euphemia runs off, she isn't sure what the halfling is up to, but so far she seemed to like being left to her own devises.
Silvana looks at Shin as he wonders about the 'we' of us and gives a half smile, half smirk, "Well, I guess we'll see. But yes, I think until we have a better feeling of what is going on around us, I'd like to stick together. Safety in numbers and all that."
It'll take about half an hour, but she manages to fashion a simple knife from the raptor. It's not quite as good as the one Atax made, but knifes don't have to be pretty to be effective.
KORINTH
The genasi man wanders back to the clearing just in time to see the cat lady finish making a knife. Euphemia is nowhere to be seen, but the lizardfolk, cat woman, and the goblin are all here.
EUPHEMIA
Tracking the raptor is a lot easier than Euphemia anticipated. The muddy jungle floor very nicely captured its footprints as it fled. A few minutes into tracking, she sees that the large dinosaur's footprints break away and head back toward the river. The raptor must have been too quick for the big fellow to catch it.
She continues to follow its path through the forest, and up ahead, she can catch glimpses of the ocean sparkling in the morning sunlight between the thick boughs of trees. She moves down a gentle slope, and her keen ears pick up an odd croaking sound coming from underneath an outcropping at the base of the hill. Cautiously, she makes her way over the the outcropping and peaks over it. Below her, she sees the raptor with the orange feathers pacing back and forth. A blood oozes from a wound upon its back, ragged tendrils of muscles twitching alongside exposed bone. It appears the big dino at least got a nice bit out of it before it left.
The raptor doesn't notice Euphemia, and it appears to be the source of the odd croaking sound. You don't have to be an animal expert to understand that the sound it was making was a sound of distress and pain. It cranes its head back to try to lick its wound, but it can't quite bend its neck all the way back.
Euphemia, surprised by how easy the trail is to follow, lets her good spirits rise with the sun sparkling on the water that she can glimpse through the trees. It's a right bonnie place, that's for sure,she thinks to herself. By the Invincible, I hope we all live long enough to enjoy it.As the croaking sound catches her ear, and she quietly creeps up the outcropping to see her target, the same orange-feathered alpha raptor alpha, she lets out her breath that she had been holding nervously.
It's hurt. That wound could be treated, though. Let's see. Here it goes. Drawing herself up to her full small stature, Euphemia tucks her bagpipes under her arm and readies her mouth close to the chanter, and carefully makes her way down the hill and into view, staying a little above the animal, and calls out to it as she slowly approaches.
"Here, lad. Here, lad. You're all right, lad."
Hopefully having reassured the creature a little, she puts her lips to the pipes, and plays a little tune, as quietly as she can, hoping not to alert or attract any other predators.
As East meets West And brute meets best, We're all brothers, Under the sun of the Invincible...
And as the melody completes, she pushes the pipes back to their place strung on her back with the rope, and speaks to the raptor. "Here, lad. It's me. You look like you've had a rough time of it. What happened to you? Did you lose your pack? I can help you with that wound, if you'd like, try to make it feel a bit better."
Aa Silvana finishes up with the final touches on her knife, she notices a small, green crystal on the back of the dead raptor’s head. Whereas your crystal implant is glowing, the raptor’s crystal is dull and just as lifeless as the raptor itself.
EUPHEMIA
The raptor is startled when Euphemia appears. Despite her magical hold upon the beast, it crouches and hisses at her threateningly before it realizes who it is that appeared. Once it recognizes you, it rises out of its crouch and makes a clicking sound, curious as to why the hafling was here.
After Euphemia weaves her other spell, the raptor jumps again in surprise when the hafling speaks. “You… you talk?” she asks in a distinctly feminine voice. She tries to look back at her wound. “You help?” she asks hopefully looking back towards Euphemia.
Oops... it's a lass, not a lad! Euphemia chuckles a little under her breath. "Pardon, lass. Yes, I can talk, but only sometimes. I've got a trick I can do on me pipes here. I'll be able to talk to you for just a few minutes. I'll help you, yes." She holds out her empty hands to show the raptor the implements--or lack thereof--that she'll be using. "If you would get down so that I can reach your wound. I'll need to touch you, it might hurt just a little, but it will feel better afterwards."
If the animal gets down within reach and allows, Euphemia tears a strip from the bottom of her robe and uses it to apply pressure to and clean up the wound, trying to staunch the bleeding without damaging the tissue too much more. The fetid stench of the raptor's breath makes her almost dizzy. Guess I'll have to get used to that. Woowee. Archpaladin, that's a deep wound, jagged edges, too. At least it's still mighty fresh, no rot setting in yet, not with all that blood. I'll have to wash it out, pack it with some plants, and stitch it shut. But I haven't got any of that, and it wouldn't be very easy even if I did.She furrows her brow a little as she cleans. Didn't that goblin have a kit with supplies in it? Wretched chance I'll have of convincing him to let me use it on a beast.
As the halfling works, she begins to sing.
"O Valourous Knight of the Lightning Countenance, Invicible Knight of Celestia Mountainous, I called to you here And you healed my fear All my blows, ills, and strife You restored me to life..."
Almost unconsciously, she makes a sign with her hand over the raptor's wound, and to her amazement, her hands glow with a faint light, and the edges of the wound begin to stitch themselves closed. O, Saint Rannik, pray for me! The Archpaladin is still with me!
"Hey! Not too bad if I don't say so myself. Thanks to being able to watch your skill Atax." She holds the new knife up to the sunlight to admire it (no idea on time of day?). She's about to dig more into the carcass when she notices the green diamond. "Whoa. I did not expect this." She moves the raptor's head so that Atax and Shin can see the dull stone.
She then attempts to cut the skin, cutting out a large piece to dry out and hopefully with some entrails and sinew she can pull something together to hold what they find. If not... maybe weave some leaves? She chuckles to herself about this.
Korinth lopes into the clearing just as the pretty kitty starts showing off her knife skills. He's a little impressed, scared and a little hungry. Mostly, he's wondering what else is potentially wandering around this place, and whether Keid would want to try eating it with... who's Keid?
He shakes it off. No use getting all bothered by something he can't remember clearly. Meandering up to Silvana, he notices what's been done so far.
"Knife works' still a tad sloppy, but it's getting the work in. Very nice."
As the healing energy pours out of her, Euphemia feels the implant in her arm throb and begin to grow warm. Her magic still washes over the raptor's wound, knitting muscles back together and scabbing over the edges of the wound, but the implant manages to curb some of her healing magic.
She also notices a small green implant similar to hers at the base of the raptor's skull. It's a bit hard to see with all the feathers in the way, but it glows just as hers does.
The raptor purrs contentedly as Euphemia sooths away some of her pain. "Thank you," she hisses. She stands up straight and stretches, obviously much more relaxed than before. Looking down at Euphemia (who's only as tall as about half of the raptor's leg), the raptor says, "I am called Nanra. What does your pack call you?"
SILVANA
Unfortunately, the frozen raptor is a bit too damaged from Atax's gruesome handiwork. She feels like she could definitely harvest the hide from the other raptors though. They'd probably make for some impressive leather to craft things with.
After thanking Atax, nodding to Silvana's response, and watching Euphemia depart, Shin finds himself filled with a bit of uncharacteristic fatalism. What the halfling is going to try seems like madness on one hand, yet perhaps only by trying mad things can we survive? Ah, here is the aquatic humanoid.
As the others work, talk, depart and arrive, Shin nods to all of them, then steps away a few paces and begins a long sequence of arcane motions and muttering to himself distractedly. Trying to sort through his addled memories to recall how this all works...
(Ritually casting Tenser's Floating Disk to help carry whatever the group needs to carry, to wherever they wish to relocate. Maybe.)
Euphemia winces slightly at the throb in her left arm. Oh, Rannik, what is this thing? It had made her a bit queasy seeing it before, but it had hardly seemed pressing with everything else going on, and so she'd pushed it from her mind. But she can feel now how it damps the flow of the healing magic, and that makes her skin crawl even more. Raising her eyes to see the matching glow on the back of the raptor's head, she stares, mystified. There's gotta be some great arcane power mixed up in this place. Could be we're all under some fell curse, hostile to all that is good and right, like the Archpaladin's touch here, it's fighting it...
But, nevertheless, the magic still works, the wound is closing. "Oh, thank the Invincible!" Euphemia says with a smile, and she stands back to let the relieved raptor get up. A little unconsciously, she rubs her arm where the implant is.
"I'm right pleased to meet you, Nanra," she says. "My name is Euphemia." The halfling frowns sadly. "I lost my pack, though. I'm alone here. And new. Don't know this place, or how I got here. I saw some others a bit ago, but they were alone, too. Have you always lived here? Are there many like you? Have you seen any others of my kind in this place? Big groups of 'em, a town? Little ones, soldiers, farmers, hunters, leaders?" By this she means to indicate a working society of some sort, not just individual stragglers. By whatever King rules this place, I sure got some questions...
Nanra watches the hafling with curiosity as she rattles off a rapid salvo of questions. Head cocked, she replies, "I have always been here. It is good place for home; lots of prey." She stretches her well-muscled legs and then shakes herself much like a dog does, her feathered frill flaring. "There was much in my pack, but others like you killed them just barely. I will train my next children to be stronger than they were," she states matter-of-factly. If there was any anger or sorrow in her words or expression, Euphemia didn't catch any. It was probably just how animals thought.
"There are other scaleless like you sometimes, but I don't know about any packs. Maybe across the Great River, but I-"
Her words are cut off by a sudden, blood-curdling shriek that splits the air coming from the direction of the ocean. It sounded like a woman's scream, though it was unnaturally shrill and incredibly loud. Euphemia spots shrubs and small trees shake and be knocked aside as something begins rushing towards her. Before Euphemia can do anything, the raptor closes her maw around the back of Euphemia's shirt, and not unlike how a mother dog carries a puppy in her mouth by the scruff of its neck, Nanra begins fleeing away from the approaching beast.
Nanra expertly weaves amongst the trees in their escape, leaping over boulders and dodging around shrubs. Behind the two, the mysterious creature screams again, and it was almost deafening with how close it was. Thankfully, Nanra is able to outpace your pursuer, and after a few intense minutes of being roughly jostled about and getting smacked in the face by foliage, the sounds of pursuit fade away. Euphemai hears a distant scream, this one sounding defeated. Nanra slows to a trot, and then comes to a halt. She drops Euphemia to the muddy ground. The sound of a river churning over stones sounds from nearby, and Euphemia recognizes this area. It seems that Nanra brought you back near the area where the others should be.
Panting, Nanra says, "Screamers are bad. Be glad it didn't catch us."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
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Shin breathes a sigh of relief as the tabaxi seems to agree to relocating to the clearing for now, and brings the fire with her, as she described.
"Well said, Silvana. And perhaps one of you can do more with the frozen raptor corpse than I can. I would love to fashion a dagger from one of its claws if nothing else. Yet I suspect that besides that, and sustenance from the meat, there may be other uses for the big lizard's body." He considers further.
"Moreover, it seems unlikely that Euphemia's apparent lack of trust in our character or intentions will be ameliorated by our continued absence."
Shin follows after Silvana, Pinky-toe flying along above from branch to branch in the trees keeping lookout.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Time passes slowly, yet Korinth finds little to nothing. What's left of the raptors aren't worth a morsel, the creatures gnawing on the bones worth even less. The game in the area is scarce too, likely frightened off by all the earlier ruckus. Disappointed, he returns to his camp, finding that the others have moved further inland and his fire dying. Throwing a few extra branches on, he falls on his butt and leans back, looking to catch a few winks before trying again. Perhaps he can bag a deer or a few rabbits before reuniting with the rest. For now, though.... zzz
Euphemia's quiet musings in the tree are well distracted by the reappearance of the goblin and the cat as they return to the clearing. She sits up a little to watch as they approach the frozen raptor corpse. Shin well said that the animal's body might provide useful items... tools, weapons, hide, meat... it certainly shouldn't go to waste. Yet how much more valuable might one alive be than one dead? Difficult, unpredictable, maybe, but... The halfling rubs her arms, feeling her mended sleeve brush over the small sore wound left by the toothed bird that had bit her. I know I'd sure feel better with a stronger critter on my side.
Eventually, Euphemia ventures from the tree, first humming, and then singing, first softly, and then more loudly, her voice strong and rousing, though not so loud nor terrifying as the bagpipes. She isn't trying to ignore or hide from Shin and Silvana, and even looks their way as she hops down to the ground with a beaming smile as the rosy enthusiasm of her song rises up into her cheeks.
"Oh ye Indignites by name, lend an ear, lend an ear!
Let him land among ye safe, and all his good proclaim,
Oh ye Indignites by name, lend an ear!"
Shin tilts his head and listens to the halfling's strange music, once more struck at how different it is than his own, smiling a little himself.
For once, the erudite goblin has little to say as he points Silvana (and Atax if he came along) at the partially frozen but un-wounded raptor corpse in the clearing, in case one of them is better able harvest anything from it than Shin was. (He personally would love a makeshift dagger fashioned from a claw).
Pinky-toe continues to keep watch from above.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Atax, seeing the dead raptor, drops the bundle of sticks and makes his way over to it. As he gets closer he can see frozen patches of scales covering its reptilian body. “I can make do with this” he mumbles to himself as he gets down on knees and pulls out his bloodied knife. “I could probably make a shield, of sorts, if I tie some well placed bones together and cover it in hide” he whispers to himself, not realizing that he’s talking out loud.
Atax has advantage and will see if he can fashion a blade for the Shin seeing as he has no weapon.
Atax: Survival roll 5, 20
Shin: Survival roll 8, 14
ATAX
Your attempts to make a shield fail. Being frozen to death damaged its hide, and your attempt at a shield just falls apart more and more as you struggle to make it.
However, you make a masterful knife. Using on the raptor’s large toe claws, you make Shin a very nice knife. In fact, you believe it’s one of the best you made.
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
If Atax presents Shin with the raptor-claw knife, the goblin is uncharacteristically quiet, accepting the weapon with an odd solemnity and testing its unconventional weight. His Mage Hand continues to hold the Healer's Kit as he flips it instinctively in his hand, trying to remember how he knew to do that.
Lizard got your tongue? Pinky-toe's usual telepathic derision is half-hearted as the owl continues to keep watch from the branches.
"So," Shin ventures finally. "I know next to nothing about this land and how to survive it. What do we need? Shelter, drinkable water, food... is the raptor edible? And... as my... acquaintance? As my acquaintance, mademoiselle halfling Euphemia has questioned, is there a 'we'?"
(Shin looks hopeful).
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Euphemia hums for a moment, watching the goblin, cat, and lizardman busy themselves with the dead raptor. They're intent enough that they pay no attention to her, but as a small and silent halfling, she is used to this. A strange land, strange creatures, strange people... you no less than them, lass. Not a one of us remembers a thing, knows if there's a town or other people... A memory starts to nag at her mind. The music that well charms the beast isn't the only tune I can play. Her brow furrows as she tries to recall. There's another one, one where I can talk to 'em. They may know... well, they'll remember, like as not, what they've seen around.
"You know," she speaks up thoughtfully, "if none of us remember anything or anyone, it might be worth a run to see if any of the animals here remember more than we do, eh? I'll be back."
And, with that, she pulls her hood back up over her head and steals off into the undergrowth, heading for the river. As the sound of gurgling water greets her ears, she can see the trampled undergrowth, the splatters of still-fresh blood, the mud of the deepening riverbank churned up with the clawed of feet of something that looks very... large. Euphemia's head swims for a minute. Not that thing. The big one. I didn't see it, but I'll bet ye it made these big marks. It's the orange-feathered fellow I want to find. Bending close to the ground, she carefully looks for tracks. That one, there, kinda like a bird foot, but bigger and uglier. He ran off that way. The pack'll stick together, like as not. Looks like biggie here was chasing 'em.
The halfling moves off to the side of the track she's following to where she can keep an eye on it, but not be directly on it. And, low to the ground and silently, she chases the trail.
Survival: 14
Stealth: 14
...Well, that's enough of that!
Korinth leaps back onto his feet. 8 mins, an hour, two hours -- he has no clue how long his eyes were closed. Doesn't matter, either. Things need doing. For one, he's got to get acquainted with the lizard and the cat. Second, he's got to figure a way to stow the lizard's bloody shirt. That's premium fish bait.
...Third. Sigh. He has to coordinate with the Goblin. However things may look, we're all stuck here, together. That means coordinating resources. Even if it kills me, he thinks.
Kicking soil over the hot embers of his smoldering bonfire, the genasi strolls casually back towards the clearing where he last saw the halfling lass. . .
Silvana watches as Atax makes quick work with the dagger out of the raptor. Impressed by his work and knowing that they would need more, she starts digging into the corpse also wanting a dagger in case her quiver runs dry and she'd like to make a bag out of it's skin. Looking around, she feels they are alright for the moment, "You know, this place isn't bad, but I don't know about you all, I feel a bit exposed. Should we see what we can find that might make a better shelter?" (I'm liking the idea of the stealing homes from other creatures.. the caves?)
Survival on what she can make out of the carcass: 14
She doesn't say anything as Euphemia runs off, she isn't sure what the halfling is up to, but so far she seemed to like being left to her own devises.
Silvana looks at Shin as he wonders about the 'we' of us and gives a half smile, half smirk, "Well, I guess we'll see. But yes, I think until we have a better feeling of what is going on around us, I'd like to stick together. Safety in numbers and all that."
SILVANA
It'll take about half an hour, but she manages to fashion a simple knife from the raptor. It's not quite as good as the one Atax made, but knifes don't have to be pretty to be effective.
KORINTH
The genasi man wanders back to the clearing just in time to see the cat lady finish making a knife. Euphemia is nowhere to be seen, but the lizardfolk, cat woman, and the goblin are all here.
EUPHEMIA
Tracking the raptor is a lot easier than Euphemia anticipated. The muddy jungle floor very nicely captured its footprints as it fled. A few minutes into tracking, she sees that the large dinosaur's footprints break away and head back toward the river. The raptor must have been too quick for the big fellow to catch it.
She continues to follow its path through the forest, and up ahead, she can catch glimpses of the ocean sparkling in the morning sunlight between the thick boughs of trees. She moves down a gentle slope, and her keen ears pick up an odd croaking sound coming from underneath an outcropping at the base of the hill. Cautiously, she makes her way over the the outcropping and peaks over it. Below her, she sees the raptor with the orange feathers pacing back and forth. A blood oozes from a wound upon its back, ragged tendrils of muscles twitching alongside exposed bone. It appears the big dino at least got a nice bit out of it before it left.
The raptor doesn't notice Euphemia, and it appears to be the source of the odd croaking sound. You don't have to be an animal expert to understand that the sound it was making was a sound of distress and pain. It cranes its head back to try to lick its wound, but it can't quite bend its neck all the way back.
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
Euphemia, surprised by how easy the trail is to follow, lets her good spirits rise with the sun sparkling on the water that she can glimpse through the trees. It's a right bonnie place, that's for sure, she thinks to herself. By the Invincible, I hope we all live long enough to enjoy it. As the croaking sound catches her ear, and she quietly creeps up the outcropping to see her target, the same orange-feathered alpha raptor alpha, she lets out her breath that she had been holding nervously.
It's hurt. That wound could be treated, though. Let's see. Here it goes. Drawing herself up to her full small stature, Euphemia tucks her bagpipes under her arm and readies her mouth close to the chanter, and carefully makes her way down the hill and into view, staying a little above the animal, and calls out to it as she slowly approaches.
"Here, lad. Here, lad. You're all right, lad."
Hopefully having reassured the creature a little, she puts her lips to the pipes, and plays a little tune, as quietly as she can, hoping not to alert or attract any other predators.
As East meets West
And brute meets best,
We're all brothers,
Under the sun of the Invincible...
And as the melody completes, she pushes the pipes back to their place strung on her back with the rope, and speaks to the raptor. "Here, lad. It's me. You look like you've had a rough time of it. What happened to you? Did you lose your pack? I can help you with that wound, if you'd like, try to make it feel a bit better."
Casting Speak With Animals.
Animal Handling: 15 (rolled with advantage*)
Persuasion: 20 (rolled with advantage*)
*due to Animal Friendship being in place
SILVANA
Aa Silvana finishes up with the final touches on her knife, she notices a small, green crystal on the back of the dead raptor’s head. Whereas your crystal implant is glowing, the raptor’s crystal is dull and just as lifeless as the raptor itself.
EUPHEMIA
The raptor is startled when Euphemia appears. Despite her magical hold upon the beast, it crouches and hisses at her threateningly before it realizes who it is that appeared. Once it recognizes you, it rises out of its crouch and makes a clicking sound, curious as to why the hafling was here.
After Euphemia weaves her other spell, the raptor jumps again in surprise when the hafling speaks. “You… you talk?” she asks in a distinctly feminine voice. She tries to look back at her wound. “You help?” she asks hopefully looking back towards Euphemia.
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
Oops... it's a lass, not a lad! Euphemia chuckles a little under her breath. "Pardon, lass. Yes, I can talk, but only sometimes. I've got a trick I can do on me pipes here. I'll be able to talk to you for just a few minutes. I'll help you, yes." She holds out her empty hands to show the raptor the implements--or lack thereof--that she'll be using. "If you would get down so that I can reach your wound. I'll need to touch you, it might hurt just a little, but it will feel better afterwards."
If the animal gets down within reach and allows, Euphemia tears a strip from the bottom of her robe and uses it to apply pressure to and clean up the wound, trying to staunch the bleeding without damaging the tissue too much more. The fetid stench of the raptor's breath makes her almost dizzy. Guess I'll have to get used to that. Woowee. Archpaladin, that's a deep wound, jagged edges, too. At least it's still mighty fresh, no rot setting in yet, not with all that blood. I'll have to wash it out, pack it with some plants, and stitch it shut. But I haven't got any of that, and it wouldn't be very easy even if I did. She furrows her brow a little as she cleans. Didn't that goblin have a kit with supplies in it? Wretched chance I'll have of convincing him to let me use it on a beast.
As the halfling works, she begins to sing.
"O Valourous Knight of the Lightning Countenance,
Invicible Knight of Celestia Mountainous,
I called to you here
And you healed my fear
All my blows, ills, and strife
You restored me to life..."
Almost unconsciously, she makes a sign with her hand over the raptor's wound, and to her amazement, her hands glow with a faint light, and the edges of the wound begin to stitch themselves closed. O, Saint Rannik, pray for me! The Archpaladin is still with me!
Casting Cure Wounds on the raptor to heal 4 HP.
Medicine: 17
"Hey! Not too bad if I don't say so myself. Thanks to being able to watch your skill Atax." She holds the new knife up to the sunlight to admire it (no idea on time of day?). She's about to dig more into the carcass when she notices the green diamond. "Whoa. I did not expect this." She moves the raptor's head so that Atax and Shin can see the dull stone.
She then attempts to cut the skin, cutting out a large piece to dry out and hopefully with some entrails and sinew she can pull something together to hold what they find. If not... maybe weave some leaves? She chuckles to herself about this.
Survival on the skin: 17
Korinth lopes into the clearing just as the pretty kitty starts showing off her knife skills. He's a little impressed, scared and a little hungry. Mostly, he's wondering what else is potentially wandering around this place, and whether Keid would want to try eating it with... who's Keid?
He shakes it off. No use getting all bothered by something he can't remember clearly. Meandering up to Silvana, he notices what's been done so far.
"Knife works' still a tad sloppy, but it's getting the work in. Very nice."
EUPHEMIA
As the healing energy pours out of her, Euphemia feels the implant in her arm throb and begin to grow warm. Her magic still washes over the raptor's wound, knitting muscles back together and scabbing over the edges of the wound, but the implant manages to curb some of her healing magic.
She also notices a small green implant similar to hers at the base of the raptor's skull. It's a bit hard to see with all the feathers in the way, but it glows just as hers does.
The raptor purrs contentedly as Euphemia sooths away some of her pain. "Thank you," she hisses. She stands up straight and stretches, obviously much more relaxed than before. Looking down at Euphemia (who's only as tall as about half of the raptor's leg), the raptor says, "I am called Nanra. What does your pack call you?"
SILVANA
Unfortunately, the frozen raptor is a bit too damaged from Atax's gruesome handiwork. She feels like she could definitely harvest the hide from the other raptors though. They'd probably make for some impressive leather to craft things with.
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
After thanking Atax, nodding to Silvana's response, and watching Euphemia depart, Shin finds himself filled with a bit of uncharacteristic fatalism. What the halfling is going to try seems like madness on one hand, yet perhaps only by trying mad things can we survive? Ah, here is the aquatic humanoid.
As the others work, talk, depart and arrive, Shin nods to all of them, then steps away a few paces and begins a long sequence of arcane motions and muttering to himself distractedly. Trying to sort through his addled memories to recall how this all works...
(Ritually casting Tenser's Floating Disk to help carry whatever the group needs to carry, to wherever they wish to relocate. Maybe.)
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Euphemia winces slightly at the throb in her left arm. Oh, Rannik, what is this thing? It had made her a bit queasy seeing it before, but it had hardly seemed pressing with everything else going on, and so she'd pushed it from her mind. But she can feel now how it damps the flow of the healing magic, and that makes her skin crawl even more. Raising her eyes to see the matching glow on the back of the raptor's head, she stares, mystified. There's gotta be some great arcane power mixed up in this place. Could be we're all under some fell curse, hostile to all that is good and right, like the Archpaladin's touch here, it's fighting it...
But, nevertheless, the magic still works, the wound is closing. "Oh, thank the Invincible!" Euphemia says with a smile, and she stands back to let the relieved raptor get up. A little unconsciously, she rubs her arm where the implant is.
"I'm right pleased to meet you, Nanra," she says. "My name is Euphemia." The halfling frowns sadly. "I lost my pack, though. I'm alone here. And new. Don't know this place, or how I got here. I saw some others a bit ago, but they were alone, too. Have you always lived here? Are there many like you? Have you seen any others of my kind in this place? Big groups of 'em, a town? Little ones, soldiers, farmers, hunters, leaders?" By this she means to indicate a working society of some sort, not just individual stragglers. By whatever King rules this place, I sure got some questions...
EUPHEMIA
Nanra watches the hafling with curiosity as she rattles off a rapid salvo of questions. Head cocked, she replies, "I have always been here. It is good place for home; lots of prey." She stretches her well-muscled legs and then shakes herself much like a dog does, her feathered frill flaring. "There was much in my pack, but others like you killed them just barely. I will train my next children to be stronger than they were," she states matter-of-factly. If there was any anger or sorrow in her words or expression, Euphemia didn't catch any. It was probably just how animals thought.
"There are other scaleless like you sometimes, but I don't know about any packs. Maybe across the Great River, but I-"
Her words are cut off by a sudden, blood-curdling shriek that splits the air coming from the direction of the ocean. It sounded like a woman's scream, though it was unnaturally shrill and incredibly loud. Euphemia spots shrubs and small trees shake and be knocked aside as something begins rushing towards her. Before Euphemia can do anything, the raptor closes her maw around the back of Euphemia's shirt, and not unlike how a mother dog carries a puppy in her mouth by the scruff of its neck, Nanra begins fleeing away from the approaching beast.
Nanra expertly weaves amongst the trees in their escape, leaping over boulders and dodging around shrubs. Behind the two, the mysterious creature screams again, and it was almost deafening with how close it was. Thankfully, Nanra is able to outpace your pursuer, and after a few intense minutes of being roughly jostled about and getting smacked in the face by foliage, the sounds of pursuit fade away. Euphemai hears a distant scream, this one sounding defeated. Nanra slows to a trot, and then comes to a halt. She drops Euphemia to the muddy ground. The sound of a river churning over stones sounds from nearby, and Euphemia recognizes this area. It seems that Nanra brought you back near the area where the others should be.
Panting, Nanra says, "Screamers are bad. Be glad it didn't catch us."
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable