Utar wipes his hands together and looks out over the water. Doozey and Neya are right, there has to be something. Some kind of clue that they just haven't seen yet.
Thinking over the trail they've followed so far, they left the bodies of the kuo-toa at the shore and the devastation there. Presumably, it is whatever dealt with them that they now want to follow. The scene suggests it is large, so how come it seems like it's just disappeared?
The water seems like an obvious answer and if they were following a group of kuo-toa, it would make sense given the previous run in... But something else, something large, not necessarily.
Feeling his stomach lurch at his sudden thought, he slowly stands and turns back towards the trees and looks up.
(OOC I'm not sure this is helpful, but I have a vision of some kind of awful fey gorilla dropping on us... Hang on, now I've turned Utar's back on the water, some tentacled beast is going to drag Utar to a watery grave.)
Graxx looks around confused and feeling slightly helpless.
”I don’t have alotta experience with fae things. Just heard some old folk tales about children being taken when wandering alone by these wood wizards. Are they as dangerous as the tales?”
'At least that settles that'Doozey thought as stood back up and released the orb to hover nearby again. In answer to Graxx, Doozey opens his mouth, but what comes out isn't quite words. At least none most in the party recognize; except Utar. And even then, perhaps only vaguely at this point from back during the ritual to restore a certain rat boy to boy-boy status. At any looks of confusion, he then says, "Aye, they can be at times. Be they one side or the other of the circles or courts or whatever the word was again. Usually, one need only ride the line of being entertaining well enough to be let go, but... not everyone is so lucky. And not all their tastes are... compatible to us mortal folk."
Noticing Utar looking back and up the way they came, a confused Doozey follows his vision, and squints at the roof that was the canopy of trees ringing the glade. If he spies nothing of interest, he'll shrug and say, "In any event, now that we've come to 'an' end, at the very least... unless folk wish to return to the beach rest, I'll take point combing the lake itself."
(@All(though mainly DM): On the off chance it matters, Doozey spoke a quick little passage in Sylvan involving a narcissist and her elven twin reflected in the lake and drowning her)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
(OOC: As Utar turns his back to the water.... nah, just kidding ☺).
Something seems odd to Utar in this tranquil scene. He looks around once more but the only thing he notices that he hadn't before is that some of the water from the lake seems to have splashed onto the land on one side of the waterline. The small waves formed by the nightly breeze are surely responsible for some of the splashing but, on this one spot, the soil even further inland than what the waves can reach is also wet. In fact, some water has pooled at this one spot. That said, most of the ground here is at least a bit wet, given the rain earlier in the evening. Looking up, Utar sees nothing but the canopy and the beautiful moon.
Doozey shares what he knows about fey courts with a curious Graxx, as well as a fey legend with an observant but quiet Neya. The halfling then looks up but finds no clear sign of disturbance. He proposes a rest to the rest of the party but, before they can answer, all of CRAP notices a single fish jump out of the water, wiggle in the air a bit while moving up in an arc, and then flop back down. It catches the group by surprise, and a few moments pass before another fish, or perhaps the same one, performs a second similar stunt. There isn't a third.
For the few instants that a creature was out of the water, their shiny and wet scales shimmered in the moonlight. Quite another pleasant sight, actually.
Closing his eyes, Utar draws in a breath. The woods are cool, and the sound of the gently lapping waves are incredibly pleasant. You couldn't feel further from the events that took place only a few hours ago on the island.
Exhaling slowly, and opening his eyes, he surveys the water as the fish, or fish, make its, or their leaps. Walking the edge of the waterline towards the water pools outside of the lake, Utar reflects on the strange events of the last few days, enjoying the moments of calm.
"It looks so nice. I just want to get in the water and relax for a minute." says Graxx.
He takes a step forward then stops and looks to Doozey.
"But if they are as dangerous as you say I better not go swimming about. If these things have taken her underwater what are we supposed to do? I can only hold my breath for a few seconds!" says Graxx.
Whatever pleasantness Doozey had felt falls away almost too promptly for the stoutling to register. Between the death of Biscuit and the hunt at hand, neither heart or mind had much room to sit back and enjoy the scenery.
"I'm... sure you can hold your breather for far longer than that, my friend. But, that is a... fair-...." Doozey stops, and looks up squinting at Graxx. Then seeing Utar just stand there and seeming to enjoy the moment, the stoutling carefully padded his way over to give him a few shakes on the shoulder hard. "Oi! This is no time to be taking it easy, my friend. Remember Eli? The one we're after? The blood?" He said with a hint of panic entering his tone. If Utar doesn't seem to be roused from his stupor, Doozey resorts to slap him across the face, consquences be damned.
Insight: 7 on Utar. (Namely to see if he just seemed tired, or might be being influenced by something else) (Hold on! Forgot that halfling lucky: 8.)
Utar and Neya take in the surprising but welcomed scene around them. The half-orc admires the waterline as he approaches the pooling puddles while the human takes a deep breath and basks under the moonlight.
Meanwhile, Graxx and Doozey discuss the viability of going for a swim, or perhaps a dive. Their discussion is interrupted by the halfling's sudden realization that the other half of CRAP seems to have lost their sense of urgency. He paces toward Utar first and shakes him out of his moment of relaxation. The hunter expects the sudden shove to result in a sort of clear sign that his companion is under some trickster's influence. Doozey is disappointed, however, when Utar's response gives nothing away. As far as Doozey can tell, Utar is just taking a second to replenish his strength.
Neya continues to stare at the moon. Selûne's old moon, a thin fading crescent, still illuminates the heavens. In the now clear night's sky, even this non-full moon can shed its light quite brightly on the earth and waters below.
The party has now been walking around the small lake for a few minutes. The scene is still quite the pleasant and peaceful one.
(OOC: If you'd like, each of you can roll an investigation check {DC 14} to see if your character can put some of the clues together at this point. This is optional, and only really if you want me to throw you a bone).
Kneeling by the pools of water, Utar gives Doozey a sidelong glance. A note of compassion in his tone.
"I know why we are are here Master Ranger. Were the trail still apparent, we would be following it. It is not and here we are, when we find it, we will on our way again."
Becoming the stoutling over with a nod of his head he continues,
"I could use your eyes over here, what do you make of these pools of water?"
Whether the trickle of blood belongs to Elisande or the creature that supposedly took her is unclear. What is clear is that it leads into the small lake. It seems to you that the group can either try to lure the creature out or go for a swim.
The moon is unlikely to have anything to do with this. Its phases were strangely connected to the attacks, but Elisande’s situation seems isolated from the cultists actions.
Utar arrives at the following conclusions:
The pooling water at a certain point just beyond the lake’s limits leads you to the conclusion that the water must have been splashed out at a very specific angle. A large creature diving into and out of the lake at a specific angle is the likely explanation. What’s more, being able to understand such dynamics would require this creature to possess some sort of cognitive prowess. This creature must be more intelligent than your average beast, if it indeed can be called that.
"Pools?" Doozey wanders over to the suggested points, and gives them a good squinting at for a moment. Even before he started, the gears were already turning in one direction, leaving him both conflicted and curious all at once.
"... Sorry, by the way. I... I.... This whole mess has me more an edge than I thought possible. And that woman's last words of 'prayer'.... we've all been through their ritual now. And depending on how things go... I, at least, may have to return there to set business, as it were. Someday, at least."
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Doozey nodded to Utar, grateful for Utar's forgiveness, even if not quite worded as such. That alone brought some peace of mind. However, in that brief moment of quiet, Doozey stood rigid as more connections were being made one after the other.
He only appears half aware of conversations to follow as he double backs a moment from the trail of blood, and then onwards to the pools, gauging to see if they overlap in some ways, or were from two different sides. Once he confirmed as much, the stoutling is pacing and snapping his fingers a few times before finally look up towards the moon.
"Not the right moon for a Lycan, but.... hmm.... Something akin, perhaps...?" With that thought in mind, he searches his memories for anything on 'controlled' transformations for Lycans in regards to the moon.
Nature: [roll]1d20ro1+6[/ski]. (Above is assume Natural Explorer bonus applies. If not, subtract 3 from above)
Even if the tanget leads him nowhere, the stoutling is back to looking for the pools of water more or less opposite of the blood trail, and see if he can pick up a continuation of the trail from there. Only this time he doesn't let himself stay locked on the idea of a beast alone having crawled its way out of the pool. But rather, a humanoid (if only appearance) of some kind. One with experience in evading pursuers, if not in a skilled woodsman of some kind. "Only works if'n the fae involved wants ya ta be healed by it." He comments on absently at some point during his once over.
If he finds nothing there, only then does he again double back to the waters, and without further hesitation at this point, dive ahead of the others, trusting the moonlight and a fast reacting Utar to be not far behind.
(Original Nature roll was a 12, Survival was a 16 before my attempt to fix a previous roll. If new ones are needed however then here they are again in order: Nature: 9. Survival: 21.).
While the group shares some of their findings, Graxx tries some of the lake water and comes to his own realizations:
The water is crisp, cool, and clear. It hits your throat deliciously and you feel its refreshing coolness satisfy your thirst. But... your wounds do not close and you feel no less tired. In the end, this is just good old natural water. There is no magic in it, as far as you can tell. In fact, you recall Utar drinking some of the water himself a few minutes ago and arriving at similar conclusions.
Something else does hit your mind though. The fact that something big stumbled into the wounds and knocked over trees just to seemingly disappear has been nagging you. Sure it could be some sort of magic from the wood wizards Doozey has been talking about, but ir could also be something much simpler. You look up just like Neya is doing and realize... What if the creature can fly? It would help explain Elisande's foot prints suddenly disappearing, as well as the forest scene suddenly no longer being damaged if all the creature did was to take it to the skies and then dive back down into the lake, right? Maybe... it's a real Sky Pony.
Doozey and Utar talk for a bit by the puddles. The halflling ponders on the existence of half-lycans but waves the thought away to his mental tiredness. Instead, he retraces the thin path of trickled blood and notices that, indeed, it leads into the lake by way of the pooling puddles outside the lake. There is no continuation of the blood trail beyond that point, though. These could potentially be tracks left by a careless humanoid, the ranger considers, but the size of the creature in question suggests otherwise.
Running out of ideas, Doozey gains some speed and dives head first into the water. It is a bit cold but it feels quite nice after a few seconds. For a moment, he feels like a kid enjoying an evening escapade to the local pond. A couple of fish scurry away from the "splash zone." All other CRAPers watch this expecting something awful to happen, but nothing does. If anything, the hunter is probably a bit cleaner now.
Utar wipes his hands together and looks out over the water. Doozey and Neya are right, there has to be something. Some kind of clue that they just haven't seen yet.
Thinking over the trail they've followed so far, they left the bodies of the kuo-toa at the shore and the devastation there. Presumably, it is whatever dealt with them that they now want to follow. The scene suggests it is large, so how come it seems like it's just disappeared?
The water seems like an obvious answer and if they were following a group of kuo-toa, it would make sense given the previous run in... But something else, something large, not necessarily.
Feeling his stomach lurch at his sudden thought, he slowly stands and turns back towards the trees and looks up.
Perception 12
(OOC I'm not sure this is helpful, but I have a vision of some kind of awful fey gorilla dropping on us... Hang on, now I've turned Utar's back on the water, some tentacled beast is going to drag Utar to a watery grave.)
Graxx looks around confused and feeling slightly helpless.
”I don’t have alotta experience with fae things. Just heard some old folk tales about children being taken when wandering alone by these wood wizards. Are they as dangerous as the tales?”
Graxx keeps a tight grip on his blade.
'At least that settles that' Doozey thought as stood back up and released the orb to hover nearby again. In answer to Graxx, Doozey opens his mouth, but what comes out isn't quite words. At least none most in the party recognize; except Utar. And even then, perhaps only vaguely at this point from back during the ritual to restore a certain rat boy to boy-boy status. At any looks of confusion, he then says, "Aye, they can be at times. Be they one side or the other of the circles or courts or whatever the word was again. Usually, one need only ride the line of being entertaining well enough to be let go, but... not everyone is so lucky. And not all their tastes are... compatible to us mortal folk."
Noticing Utar looking back and up the way they came, a confused Doozey follows his vision, and squints at the roof that was the canopy of trees ringing the glade. If he spies nothing of interest, he'll shrug and say, "In any event, now that we've come to 'an' end, at the very least... unless folk wish to return to the beach rest, I'll take point combing the lake itself."
(@All(though mainly DM): On the off chance it matters, Doozey spoke a quick little passage in Sylvan involving a narcissist and her elven twin reflected in the lake and drowning her)
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
(OOC: As Utar turns his back to the water.... nah, just kidding ☺).
Something seems odd to Utar in this tranquil scene. He looks around once more but the only thing he notices that he hadn't before is that some of the water from the lake seems to have splashed onto the land on one side of the waterline. The small waves formed by the nightly breeze are surely responsible for some of the splashing but, on this one spot, the soil even further inland than what the waves can reach is also wet. In fact, some water has pooled at this one spot. That said, most of the ground here is at least a bit wet, given the rain earlier in the evening. Looking up, Utar sees nothing but the canopy and the beautiful moon.
Doozey shares what he knows about fey courts with a curious Graxx, as well as a fey legend with an observant but quiet Neya. The halfling then looks up but finds no clear sign of disturbance. He proposes a rest to the rest of the party but, before they can answer, all of CRAP notices a single fish jump out of the water, wiggle in the air a bit while moving up in an arc, and then flop back down. It catches the group by surprise, and a few moments pass before another fish, or perhaps the same one, performs a second similar stunt. There isn't a third.
For the few instants that a creature was out of the water, their shiny and wet scales shimmered in the moonlight. Quite another pleasant sight, actually.
Closing his eyes, Utar draws in a breath. The woods are cool, and the sound of the gently lapping waves are incredibly pleasant. You couldn't feel further from the events that took place only a few hours ago on the island.
Exhaling slowly, and opening his eyes, he surveys the water as the fish, or fish, make its, or their leaps. Walking the edge of the waterline towards the water pools outside of the lake, Utar reflects on the strange events of the last few days, enjoying the moments of calm.
Graxx looks strangely at the water.
"It looks so nice. I just want to get in the water and relax for a minute." says Graxx.
He takes a step forward then stops and looks to Doozey.
"But if they are as dangerous as you say I better not go swimming about. If these things have taken her underwater what are we supposed to do? I can only hold my breath for a few seconds!" says Graxx.
Whatever pleasantness Doozey had felt falls away almost too promptly for the stoutling to register. Between the death of Biscuit and the hunt at hand, neither heart or mind had much room to sit back and enjoy the scenery.
"I'm... sure you can hold your breather for far longer than that, my friend. But, that is a... fair-...." Doozey stops, and looks up squinting at Graxx. Then seeing Utar just stand there and seeming to enjoy the moment, the stoutling carefully padded his way over to give him a few shakes on the shoulder hard. "Oi! This is no time to be taking it easy, my friend. Remember Eli? The one we're after? The blood?" He said with a hint of panic entering his tone. If Utar doesn't seem to be roused from his stupor, Doozey resorts to slap him across the face, consquences be damned.
Insight: 7 on Utar. (Namely to see if he just seemed tired, or might be being influenced by something else)
(Hold on! Forgot that halfling lucky: 8.)
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
"That... was beautiful..." Neya says, awestruck at the spectacle she just saw for a moment.
Then something strikes her as odd, she then directs her vision to the sky and studies the moon.
Extended Signature
Utar and Neya take in the surprising but welcomed scene around them. The half-orc admires the waterline as he approaches the pooling puddles while the human takes a deep breath and basks under the moonlight.
Meanwhile, Graxx and Doozey discuss the viability of going for a swim, or perhaps a dive. Their discussion is interrupted by the halfling's sudden realization that the other half of CRAP seems to have lost their sense of urgency. He paces toward Utar first and shakes him out of his moment of relaxation. The hunter expects the sudden shove to result in a sort of clear sign that his companion is under some trickster's influence. Doozey is disappointed, however, when Utar's response gives nothing away. As far as Doozey can tell, Utar is just taking a second to replenish his strength.
Neya continues to stare at the moon. Selûne's old moon, a thin fading crescent, still illuminates the heavens. In the now clear night's sky, even this non-full moon can shed its light quite brightly on the earth and waters below.
The party has now been walking around the small lake for a few minutes. The scene is still quite the pleasant and peaceful one.
(OOC: If you'd like, each of you can roll an investigation check {DC 14} to see if your character can put some of the clues together at this point. This is optional, and only really if you want me to throw you a bone).
Investigation: 3.
(Editing later...)
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
Investigation: 2
(Rolling inspiration: 18)
Extended Signature
Kneeling by the pools of water, Utar gives Doozey a sidelong glance. A note of compassion in his tone.
"I know why we are are here Master Ranger. Were the trail still apparent, we would be following it. It is not and here we are, when we find it, we will on our way again."
Becoming the stoutling over with a nod of his head he continues,
"I could use your eyes over here, what do you make of these pools of water?"
Investigation 16
Neya arrives at the following conclusions:
Whether the trickle of blood belongs to Elisande or the creature that supposedly took her is unclear. What is clear is that it leads into the small lake. It seems to you that the group can either try to lure the creature out or go for a swim.
The moon is unlikely to have anything to do with this. Its phases were strangely connected to the attacks, but Elisande’s situation seems isolated from the cultists actions.
Utar arrives at the following conclusions:
The pooling water at a certain point just beyond the lake’s limits leads you to the conclusion that the water must have been splashed out at a very specific angle. A large creature diving into and out of the lake at a specific angle is the likely explanation. What’s more, being able to understand such dynamics would require this creature to possess some sort of cognitive prowess. This creature must be more intelligent than your average beast, if it indeed can be called that.
"Pools?" Doozey wanders over to the suggested points, and gives them a good squinting at for a moment. Even before he started, the gears were already turning in one direction, leaving him both conflicted and curious all at once.
Survival: 29.
"... Sorry, by the way. I... I.... This whole mess has me more an edge than I thought possible. And that woman's last words of 'prayer'.... we've all been through their ritual now. And depending on how things go... I, at least, may have to return there to set business, as it were. Someday, at least."
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
"No need to apologise Master Ranger. If I stopped to think about what I've seen and learned over the past few days..."
Utar's voice trails off, suddenly quietened. He rubs a hand over his face, spending a moment too long on his eyes before finding his voice.
"Well, I'm not sure I would be able to carry on."
The half-orc forces a smile and stands, turning back to face the lake, his eyes wet.
"Whatever we've been following, whatever has Elisande, is likely in there."
Looking to the other members of CRAP, he adds,
"I have a bad feeling about this, but does anyone have any ideas?"
“Do you think this fairy water might be magical?” says Graxxy as he steps to within 5 feet of the water.
”I’m hurting and if this stuff might heal me I’m happy to take a swig.”
Graxx will dip one hand into the water and suck in a little.
Investigation: 17
(@Ori: With that survival roll, you are welcome to read both spoilers in my previous post).
Doozey nodded to Utar, grateful for Utar's forgiveness, even if not quite worded as such. That alone brought some peace of mind. However, in that brief moment of quiet, Doozey stood rigid as more connections were being made one after the other.
He only appears half aware of conversations to follow as he double backs a moment from the trail of blood, and then onwards to the pools, gauging to see if they overlap in some ways, or were from two different sides. Once he confirmed as much, the stoutling is pacing and snapping his fingers a few times before finally look up towards the moon.
"Not the right moon for a Lycan, but.... hmm.... Something akin, perhaps...?" With that thought in mind, he searches his memories for anything on 'controlled' transformations for Lycans in regards to the moon.
Nature: [roll]1d20ro1+6[/ski].(Above is assume Natural Explorer bonus applies. If not, subtract 3 from above)
Even if the tanget leads him nowhere, the stoutling is back to looking for the pools of water more or less opposite of the blood trail, and see if he can pick up a continuation of the trail from there. Only this time he doesn't let himself stay locked on the idea of a beast alone having crawled its way out of the pool. But rather, a humanoid (if only appearance) of some kind. One with experience in evading pursuers, if not in a skilled woodsman of some kind. "Only works if'n the fae involved wants ya ta be healed by it." He comments on absently at some point during his once over.
Survival: 18.
If he finds nothing there, only then does he again double back to the waters, and without further hesitation at this point, dive ahead of the others, trusting the moonlight and a fast reacting Utar to be not far behind.
(Original Nature roll was a 12, Survival was a 16 before my attempt to fix a previous roll. If new ones are needed however then here they are again in order:
Nature: 9.
Survival: 21.).
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
While the group shares some of their findings, Graxx tries some of the lake water and comes to his own realizations:
The water is crisp, cool, and clear. It hits your throat deliciously and you feel its refreshing coolness satisfy your thirst. But... your wounds do not close and you feel no less tired. In the end, this is just good old natural water. There is no magic in it, as far as you can tell. In fact, you recall Utar drinking some of the water himself a few minutes ago and arriving at similar conclusions.
Something else does hit your mind though. The fact that something big stumbled into the wounds and knocked over trees just to seemingly disappear has been nagging you. Sure it could be some sort of magic from the wood wizards Doozey has been talking about, but ir could also be something much simpler. You look up just like Neya is doing and realize... What if the creature can fly? It would help explain Elisande's foot prints suddenly disappearing, as well as the forest scene suddenly no longer being damaged if all the creature did was to take it to the skies and then dive back down into the lake, right? Maybe... it's a real Sky Pony.
Doozey and Utar talk for a bit by the puddles. The halflling ponders on the existence of half-lycans but waves the thought away to his mental tiredness. Instead, he retraces the thin path of trickled blood and notices that, indeed, it leads into the lake by way of the pooling puddles outside the lake. There is no continuation of the blood trail beyond that point, though. These could potentially be tracks left by a careless humanoid, the ranger considers, but the size of the creature in question suggests otherwise.
Running out of ideas, Doozey gains some speed and dives head first into the water. It is a bit cold but it feels quite nice after a few seconds. For a moment, he feels like a kid enjoying an evening escapade to the local pond. A couple of fish scurry away from the "splash zone." All other CRAPers watch this expecting something awful to happen, but nothing does. If anything, the hunter is probably a bit cleaner now.
(OOC: Who is holding the Driftglobe?)
(OOC I think Doozey is, or its floating behind him.)