Gus will ask Cleo to fly ahead a bit and to alert me if she sees someone.
sir Jory, is there just the one tribe living in the marsh?
Sir Jory, surprised that you're directing the question to him, but clearly pleased: "Well, in a sense, yes. If all this is true about Redeye, he'll have united them all under his banner."
Feydon snorts. Sir Jory deflates, preparing to be made to look stupid again. But Feydon is much more diplomatic than he probably HAD to be - maybe just playing it safe. "While it's true, that Redeye's ultimate goal has always been to unite the tribes, he's never FULLY done so. There's dozens and dozens of tribes down there at any time. Even when they are united under someone like Redeye, they retain their tribal allegiances as well - something that almost certainly can be exploited, because almost certainly there's going to be some tribal leaders that would rather unite everyone under themselves, and others that would rather stay independent."
Gus will ask Cleo to fly ahead a bit and to alert me if she sees someone.
sir Jory, is there just the one tribe living in the marsh?
From the rest area you are still too far to send her over the edge of the cliff, if that's what you mean. You'll have to be within less than 100 feet really.
Geren listens to Sir Jory's explanation of lizardfolk combat ability. Unfortunately the spells he knows all deal fire or lightning damage so they'll do him little good here.
If Geren had spent perhaps a month more with the Zhentarim and Levistus working their influences on him Sir Jory would stand no chance of making it out of the marsh alive without losing his life to the lizardfolk or Geren. Since that's not the case Geren instead gives a nod of thanks to Feydon for dismantling the instrument the knight was using to torment them.
"Are there any signs we could know the tribes by? If we do end up confronted by lizardfolk it would help to know what we could say to mollify them. Or at the very least point their ire elsewhere. Maybe even manipulate them into warring amongst themselves to make our job easier."
One of the many talents Geren had picked up from the Zhentarim was knowing how to turn your enemies against themselves. It didn't seem like he could sell weapons to all sides, but maybe he could make the suggestion to one of his superiors. No scratch that, arming them would make them more dangerous and more likely to invade. And as profitable as that could be far too many innocent people would be hurt.
About 30 or 45 minutes later, you're approaching the ridge. Everyone is silent. Even Sir Jory seems to finally understand the danger now that you are approaching the about 100 feet of the ridge. As you get within 80 feet or so, Gus lets Madame Cleo the Owl fly over the side of the ridge. At first, she does a pass from a safe height - but seeing nothing, you probe her to drop a little further. As you're doing this, the group is making their way slowly the edge as well, including Gus, so that Madame Cleo will have more 'slack' to roam. 100 feet isn't a lot, but images coming back are useful in a few ways:
1. It's clear that the drop is fairly safe - the only member of the group that may suffer some damage would be Hnefa, because of her extreme mass, though it wouldn't likely be that much, as she's still considered a medium creature - just at the uppermost end of medium. If she is injured by the fall, it'll almost certainly be a minor wound (the kind full healed by a regular healing potion - 1d6 damage, but it's only ~5% likely). For everyone else but Eltra, it feels more like a 1% chance of taking the same amount of damage. For Eltra it feels like a 0.1% chance. In other words - its pretty safe, just don't land on your heads. The water is shallow enough to see the bottom, via Cleo, and there are no large rocks or other obstacles that could be damaging if landed on. Therefore, you gauge it to be a relatively safe jump - not 100% risk free, but almost certainly less risky than climbing down a cliff move twice its height.
2. Swooping down from a reasonable distance, you can see the cave entrance is indeed about 15 feet or so, but its very hard to see deep into it. It doesn't LOOK like there's anything moving around in the mouth of the cave. There's nothing to be heard directly from the mouth of the cave either. As she gets closer, it becomes clear why you can't see very deep into it - it appears to end into a stone wall, but seems to continue on after a bend. It seems like it could go aways back beyond the bend but its far too dark too see without her going into the cave. There are sounds coming from somewhere very deep within the cave. Or really, at multiple depths. There's an occasional sound that seems almost sort of close by to the entrance, but there's nothing there to attribute to it. It's kind of odd - but it DOES SEEM safe as far as occupants. For the moment anyway - this may be the perfect chance to get down there before something DOES arrive at the mouth of the cave, because the more she listens, the more it sounds like something is coming.
Geren listens to Sir Jory's explanation of lizardfolk combat ability. Unfortunately the spells he knows all deal fire or lightning damage so they'll do him little good here.
If Geren had spent perhaps a month more with the Zhentarim and Levistus working their influences on him Sir Jory would stand no chance of making it out of the marsh alive without losing his life to the lizardfolk or Geren. Since that's not the case Geren instead gives a nod of thanks to Feydon for dismantling the instrument the knight was using to torment them.
"Are there any signs we could know the tribes by? If we do end up confronted by lizardfolk it would help to know what we could say to mollify them. Or at the very least point their ire elsewhere. Maybe even manipulate them into warring amongst themselves to make our job easier."
One of the many talents Geren had picked up from the Zhentarim was knowing how to turn your enemies against themselves. It didn't seem like he could sell weapons to all sides, but maybe he could make the suggestion to one of his superiors. No scratch that, arming them would make them more dangerous and more likely to invade. And as profitable as that could be far too many innocent people would be hurt.
(is he asking Feydon I presume? - I'll assume so based on your comment lol)
Feydon shrugs. "They normally stick to their own territories. It's weird to see different tribes in the same spot- I've never seen it frankly. But tribal leaders stand out like sore thumbs. The Same way Shamans stand out amongst the warriors and tribals, Leaders standout among shamans - leaders are taken from a tribes pool of shaman, you see, so they'd otherwise look like shaman do except they're always the largest and strongest, often oldest but not if they're so old that they're weakening. But what really makes them stand out is all their jewelry, their necklaces of bone, skulls, etc. - and they're always wielding the finest weapon that that tribe has been able to acquire - perhaps from some unwary adventurer scaling down the cliffside at night. They prefer tridents, like all shamans - but their trident is usually noticeably better made. Like actual quality metals, if not magical. They have banners - the tribes - but the leaders aren't the ones to carry them - they dedicated one or two of their best warriors to carry their banners. Their usually crude - l molding linens tied to the end of a long wood pool, wit some design drawn on it in blood or feces. Don't look at me like that, they're basically animals that can talk, and have developed a kind of despotic caste system their tribes all seem to adhere to - they're far from what we'd call 'civilized'. They don't know how to make dyes, they hardly even wear clothes, they don't know shit about metallurgy, they can't make anything other than shields for armor - though their skins are tough. They make a mean trap - which might be the greatest threat to us, other than Redeye. Or like an entire tribe or two gathered together. The next biggest threat is definitely their shamans - they have druid like powers, that shouldn't be underestimated. If we get into a scrape, and you see a shaman - it's worth it for all of us to focus all our efforts on them if there's a chance to take them down before they can cast something."
"As far as playing them off each other - I think it's fair to assume that, if we find a cavern with multiple tribes in the same location, then they've allied under some stronger tribe - probably Redeye. So if we see more than one banner type, more than one leader in the same location, I think that means we found where Redeye is gathering. Because otherwise they simply DO NOT hang out with each other,. They're their own worst enemies. They do Crom's Hold's work for them, usually. It's just when this ******* comes around again that they cause issues. If you want to look for tribes to use against Redeye - then we should look for locations that just have ONE tribe, and... hells.. maybe try talking to them? If they're not with Redeye already, they're probably discussing how to standup to him. It's a thought. I wouldn't recommend it if the tribe is 150 large. But they're usually more like 20-40. We can survive a fight with 20 of them, maybe even 40 if we break it into parts. Divide and conquer. In case they won't parlay, I mean."
"I think we should just go for and do this," he whispers, now at the edge of the ridge.
While resting, Dawn asks, "So the plan is to jump down into water that's deeper then we are tall? I will pass on that, While I don't have any personal experience with water that deep, I've heard that armor and water do not go well together. I have no desire to drown as we are just getting started. I'll just climb down carefully."
OOC: Should have checked in to raise this point earlier. There's no way Dawn would know how to swim, and even if she did, she couldn't swim in armor.
While resting, Dawn asks, "So the plan is to jump down into water that's deeper then we are tall? I will pass on that, While I don't have any personal experience with water that deep, I've heard that armor and water do not go well together. I have no desire to drown as we are just getting started. I'll just climb down carefully."
OOC: Should have checked in to raise this point earlier. There's no way Dawn would know how to swim, and even if she did, she couldn't swim in armor.
It's not deeper than you are tall - at its deepest its ~4 feet, maybe ~4.5. It varies in depth from that to zero - you can jump onto the soft ground next to the water, but it'll increase the odds you might take a small amount of damage.
At its deepest, its deeper than Eltra is tall, thats true. But he's not in metal armor. And he's also very low mass. He'd be okay jumping in shallower water if he can't swim
Bree looks over the edge gauging the distance and looking to see what she'll be landing on.
(OOC is a check needed for this if so what check)
It's up to you. With a little bit of a running start, you can clear the water altogether, and land to either side of it, where it looks like the ground is the kind you'd expect to see in a marsh - muddy and covered with layers of detritus. The ground appears as though it will soften what would otherwise be a mild shock to your joints even landing on your feet (with a possible 1d6 damage), but not with 100% certainty. However, it's that the water way leading into the cave below (into which you cannot see from above), gets deeper toward the center. You can no longer see the bottom after it gets a couple feet deep, but that's because it's so murky. Madame Cleo (which I'm assuming Gus would've shared) was able to see its bottom all the way across, and yeah its between 4 and 4.5 feet at its deepest. This would be the safest place to land but also might slow your initial movements into or away from the cave, depending on what happens next.
Eltra looks at the others and then Feydon "Well this is what we came for eh? You're not going to let an old gnome show you whipper snappers up are yas? Let's hop to it" He looks at Bree "Sorry no pun intended" And with that Eltra leaps down into the water
The next thing anyone knows, Feydon draws his sword and says "**** this - I'll soften 'em up for you, if there are any." Then before anyone can react, he leaps with a little spin to his jump that rotates him in midair so that just as he's touching into the water with a predictably large splash, he's facing toward the cave entrance; and in a moment he's standing again, the water up to his waist as hie aimed a little to the side, and he gets into position for a fight. After a moment, when nothing happens, he seems to relax, eventually starting to sheath his sword. As he starts to do this, he calls up. "It's fine. Come down. There's nothing in the mouth of the-" but then he stops, his eyes catching something. There's a tense pause where he seems to have locked eyes with something, awaiting its move. Apparently, whatever it is moved in a way he didn't like, because a moment later his sword is out again, and he gives a battle cry - then disappears!
Right after this, the sound of fighting can be heard from somewhere just inside the cave - it appears he magicked himself toward some sort of opponent that came into view and is now engaged with it/with them.
"Fool!" Sir Jory calls down, then sighs, draws his halberd, and attempts to emulate what Feydon did regarding spinning while jumping. He puts a little too much spin in his jump, however, and does a complete 360 degree turn before landing. He also lands more toward the middle, so his first movements are slowed, but he's clearly moving in toward the cave to assist Feydon. "It's just a couple of lizardmen," he yells up as he continues inward.
Eltra looks at the others and then Feydon "Well this is what we came for eh? You're not going to let an old gnome show you whipper snappers up are yas? Let's hop to it" He looks at Bree "Sorry no pun intended" And with that Eltra leaps down into the water
(It appears I was writing Feydon's jump right when you were too - we'll say that you followed right after him, and landed basically at the same time. You landed a little closer to 'land', as you could see that you weren't in much danger, and thus didn't need to get entirely wet. So you landed where it was just a foot and a half deep or so - it didn't feel 'good', but it didn't do any significant harm. You're able to spin around and face the cave, in time to see ..... its empty. You and Feydon exchange a glance and he seems to relax. He's about to sheath his sword, and he calls up as I had already described, but before he can finish, you both see a lizardman carrying a sword and a shield come out of nowhere it seems - almot like he came right out of the wall somewhere to the right side of the cave entrance. Feydon and the lizardman lock eyes. Clearly, the lizardman is totally surprised. But then another one appears not wearing anything or carrying a shield, but has several javelins across its back. He comes in from the same part of the wall the warrior did. When this second one sees you both, it immediately begins reaching for a javelin, and then Feydon is suddenly gone! After drawing his sword, he casts what you recognize to be Misty Step, appearing right in front of the two lizard men. A battle ensues! (I'll wait for everyone's decision before doing any real fighting with Feydon and the Lizardmen.)
Before heading out, Dawn gave Hnefa the 3 bottles of acid, 3 bottles of holy water, 10 days of rations, waterskin, and spare rope. If she wants them, she's welcome to the oil, lamp, torches, and Tinderbox as well.
(OOC: please alert me in the Discord if you've acted, other than those who I've already addressed - essentially just looking to hear from Geren and Dawn, though I'm going to have to leave in ~30 minutes or so, so unless you come in soon we'll just adjourn until I'm back - probably around 2pm my time (5pm Eastern)
Dawn was intending to climb down carefully, but with the sounds of battle coming from below she decides to risk jumping. Still wanting nothing to do with the water, she tries jumping to the side where it's just muddy, or at least the shallow water by the edge.
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Sir Jory, surprised that you're directing the question to him, but clearly pleased: "Well, in a sense, yes. If all this is true about Redeye, he'll have united them all under his banner."
Feydon snorts. Sir Jory deflates, preparing to be made to look stupid again. But Feydon is much more diplomatic than he probably HAD to be - maybe just playing it safe. "While it's true, that Redeye's ultimate goal has always been to unite the tribes, he's never FULLY done so. There's dozens and dozens of tribes down there at any time. Even when they are united under someone like Redeye, they retain their tribal allegiances as well - something that almost certainly can be exploited, because almost certainly there's going to be some tribal leaders that would rather unite everyone under themselves, and others that would rather stay independent."
From the rest area you are still too far to send her over the edge of the cliff, if that's what you mean. You'll have to be within less than 100 feet really.
Geren listens to Sir Jory's explanation of lizardfolk combat ability. Unfortunately the spells he knows all deal fire or lightning damage so they'll do him little good here.
If Geren had spent perhaps a month more with the Zhentarim and Levistus working their influences on him Sir Jory would stand no chance of making it out of the marsh alive without losing his life to the lizardfolk or Geren. Since that's not the case Geren instead gives a nod of thanks to Feydon for dismantling the instrument the knight was using to torment them.
"Are there any signs we could know the tribes by? If we do end up confronted by lizardfolk it would help to know what we could say to mollify them. Or at the very least point their ire elsewhere. Maybe even manipulate them into warring amongst themselves to make our job easier."
One of the many talents Geren had picked up from the Zhentarim was knowing how to turn your enemies against themselves. It didn't seem like he could sell weapons to all sides, but maybe he could make the suggestion to one of his superiors. No scratch that, arming them would make them more dangerous and more likely to invade. And as profitable as that could be far too many innocent people would be hurt.
About 30 or 45 minutes later, you're approaching the ridge. Everyone is silent. Even Sir Jory seems to finally understand the danger now that you are approaching the about 100 feet of the ridge. As you get within 80 feet or so, Gus lets Madame Cleo the Owl fly over the side of the ridge. At first, she does a pass from a safe height - but seeing nothing, you probe her to drop a little further. As you're doing this, the group is making their way slowly the edge as well, including Gus, so that Madame Cleo will have more 'slack' to roam. 100 feet isn't a lot, but images coming back are useful in a few ways:
1. It's clear that the drop is fairly safe - the only member of the group that may suffer some damage would be Hnefa, because of her extreme mass, though it wouldn't likely be that much, as she's still considered a medium creature - just at the uppermost end of medium. If she is injured by the fall, it'll almost certainly be a minor wound (the kind full healed by a regular healing potion - 1d6 damage, but it's only ~5% likely). For everyone else but Eltra, it feels more like a 1% chance of taking the same amount of damage. For Eltra it feels like a 0.1% chance. In other words - its pretty safe, just don't land on your heads. The water is shallow enough to see the bottom, via Cleo, and there are no large rocks or other obstacles that could be damaging if landed on. Therefore, you gauge it to be a relatively safe jump - not 100% risk free, but almost certainly less risky than climbing down a cliff move twice its height.
2. Swooping down from a reasonable distance, you can see the cave entrance is indeed about 15 feet or so, but its very hard to see deep into it. It doesn't LOOK like there's anything moving around in the mouth of the cave. There's nothing to be heard directly from the mouth of the cave either. As she gets closer, it becomes clear why you can't see very deep into it - it appears to end into a stone wall, but seems to continue on after a bend. It seems like it could go aways back beyond the bend but its far too dark too see without her going into the cave. There are sounds coming from somewhere very deep within the cave. Or really, at multiple depths. There's an occasional sound that seems almost sort of close by to the entrance, but there's nothing there to attribute to it. It's kind of odd - but it DOES SEEM safe as far as occupants. For the moment anyway - this may be the perfect chance to get down there before something DOES arrive at the mouth of the cave, because the more she listens, the more it sounds like something is coming.
(is he asking Feydon I presume? - I'll assume so based on your comment lol)
Feydon shrugs. "They normally stick to their own territories. It's weird to see different tribes in the same spot- I've never seen it frankly. But tribal leaders stand out like sore thumbs. The Same way Shamans stand out amongst the warriors and tribals, Leaders standout among shamans - leaders are taken from a tribes pool of shaman, you see, so they'd otherwise look like shaman do except they're always the largest and strongest, often oldest but not if they're so old that they're weakening. But what really makes them stand out is all their jewelry, their necklaces of bone, skulls, etc. - and they're always wielding the finest weapon that that tribe has been able to acquire - perhaps from some unwary adventurer scaling down the cliffside at night. They prefer tridents, like all shamans - but their trident is usually noticeably better made. Like actual quality metals, if not magical. They have banners - the tribes - but the leaders aren't the ones to carry them - they dedicated one or two of their best warriors to carry their banners. Their usually crude - l molding linens tied to the end of a long wood pool, wit some design drawn on it in blood or feces. Don't look at me like that, they're basically animals that can talk, and have developed a kind of despotic caste system their tribes all seem to adhere to - they're far from what we'd call 'civilized'. They don't know how to make dyes, they hardly even wear clothes, they don't know shit about metallurgy, they can't make anything other than shields for armor - though their skins are tough. They make a mean trap - which might be the greatest threat to us, other than Redeye. Or like an entire tribe or two gathered together. The next biggest threat is definitely their shamans - they have druid like powers, that shouldn't be underestimated. If we get into a scrape, and you see a shaman - it's worth it for all of us to focus all our efforts on them if there's a chance to take them down before they can cast something."
"As far as playing them off each other - I think it's fair to assume that, if we find a cavern with multiple tribes in the same location, then they've allied under some stronger tribe - probably Redeye. So if we see more than one banner type, more than one leader in the same location, I think that means we found where Redeye is gathering. Because otherwise they simply DO NOT hang out with each other,. They're their own worst enemies. They do Crom's Hold's work for them, usually. It's just when this ******* comes around again that they cause issues. If you want to look for tribes to use against Redeye - then we should look for locations that just have ONE tribe, and... hells.. maybe try talking to them? If they're not with Redeye already, they're probably discussing how to standup to him. It's a thought. I wouldn't recommend it if the tribe is 150 large. But they're usually more like 20-40. We can survive a fight with 20 of them, maybe even 40 if we break it into parts. Divide and conquer. In case they won't parlay, I mean."
"I think we should just go for and do this," he whispers, now at the edge of the ridge.
While resting, Dawn asks, "So the plan is to jump down into water that's deeper then we are tall? I will pass on that, While I don't have any personal experience with water that deep, I've heard that armor and water do not go well together. I have no desire to drown as we are just getting started. I'll just climb down carefully."
OOC: Should have checked in to raise this point earlier. There's no way Dawn would know how to swim, and even if she did, she couldn't swim in armor.
It's not deeper than you are tall - at its deepest its ~4 feet, maybe ~4.5. It varies in depth from that to zero - you can jump onto the soft ground next to the water, but it'll increase the odds you might take a small amount of damage.
At its deepest, its deeper than Eltra is tall, thats true. But he's not in metal armor. And he's also very low mass. He'd be okay jumping in shallower water if he can't swim
Bree looks over the edge gauging the distance and looking to see what she'll be landing on.
(OOC is a check needed for this if so what check)
It's up to you. With a little bit of a running start, you can clear the water altogether, and land to either side of it, where it looks like the ground is the kind you'd expect to see in a marsh - muddy and covered with layers of detritus. The ground appears as though it will soften what would otherwise be a mild shock to your joints even landing on your feet (with a possible 1d6 damage), but not with 100% certainty. However, it's that the water way leading into the cave below (into which you cannot see from above), gets deeper toward the center. You can no longer see the bottom after it gets a couple feet deep, but that's because it's so murky. Madame Cleo (which I'm assuming Gus would've shared) was able to see its bottom all the way across, and yeah its between 4 and 4.5 feet at its deepest. This would be the safest place to land but also might slow your initial movements into or away from the cave, depending on what happens next.
Eltra looks at the others and then Feydon "Well this is what we came for eh? You're not going to let an old gnome show you whipper snappers up are yas? Let's hop to it" He looks at Bree "Sorry no pun intended" And with that Eltra leaps down into the water
The next thing anyone knows, Feydon draws his sword and says "**** this - I'll soften 'em up for you, if there are any." Then before anyone can react, he leaps with a little spin to his jump that rotates him in midair so that just as he's touching into the water with a predictably large splash, he's facing toward the cave entrance; and in a moment he's standing again, the water up to his waist as hie aimed a little to the side, and he gets into position for a fight. After a moment, when nothing happens, he seems to relax, eventually starting to sheath his sword. As he starts to do this, he calls up. "It's fine. Come down. There's nothing in the mouth of the-" but then he stops, his eyes catching something. There's a tense pause where he seems to have locked eyes with something, awaiting its move. Apparently, whatever it is moved in a way he didn't like, because a moment later his sword is out again, and he gives a battle cry - then disappears!
Right after this, the sound of fighting can be heard from somewhere just inside the cave - it appears he magicked himself toward some sort of opponent that came into view and is now engaged with it/with them.
"Fool!" Sir Jory calls down, then sighs, draws his halberd, and attempts to emulate what Feydon did regarding spinning while jumping. He puts a little too much spin in his jump, however, and does a complete 360 degree turn before landing. He also lands more toward the middle, so his first movements are slowed, but he's clearly moving in toward the cave to assist Feydon. "It's just a couple of lizardmen," he yells up as he continues inward.
Bree jumps down rod of cold ready
(It appears I was writing Feydon's jump right when you were too - we'll say that you followed right after him, and landed basically at the same time. You landed a little closer to 'land', as you could see that you weren't in much danger, and thus didn't need to get entirely wet. So you landed where it was just a foot and a half deep or so - it didn't feel 'good', but it didn't do any significant harm. You're able to spin around and face the cave, in time to see ..... its empty. You and Feydon exchange a glance and he seems to relax. He's about to sheath his sword, and he calls up as I had already described, but before he can finish, you both see a lizardman carrying a sword and a shield come out of nowhere it seems - almot like he came right out of the wall somewhere to the right side of the cave entrance. Feydon and the lizardman lock eyes. Clearly, the lizardman is totally surprised. But then another one appears not wearing anything or carrying a shield, but has several javelins across its back. He comes in from the same part of the wall the warrior did. When this second one sees you both, it immediately begins reaching for a javelin, and then Feydon is suddenly gone! After drawing his sword, he casts what you recognize to be Misty Step, appearing right in front of the two lizard men. A battle ensues! (I'll wait for everyone's decision before doing any real fighting with Feydon and the Lizardmen.)
(Ok - I'll say you arrived just as the lizardmen are spotted)
Gus, trying to figure out how Cleo could have missed two lizard men so easily, jumps down as well. tally-oooo
(Gus will see - as I was saying to the others, they appeared to come out of the wall. They weren't there when Feydon and Eltra first landed).
OK - you land with a slpash, and flip around in time to see the two lizardmen, with Feydon directly in front of them. There may be a third even...
Before heading out, Dawn gave Hnefa the 3 bottles of acid, 3 bottles of holy water, 10 days of rations, waterskin, and spare rope. If she wants them, she's welcome to the oil, lamp, torches, and Tinderbox as well.
(OOC: please alert me in the Discord if you've acted, other than those who I've already addressed - essentially just looking to hear from Geren and Dawn, though I'm going to have to leave in ~30 minutes or so, so unless you come in soon we'll just adjourn until I'm back - probably around 2pm my time (5pm Eastern)
Dawn was intending to climb down carefully, but with the sounds of battle coming from below she decides to risk jumping. Still wanting nothing to do with the water, she tries jumping to the side where it's just muddy, or at least the shallow water by the edge.