During one of the evenings Celtra will take take a cook pot and toss her silver coins into it to melt them. With the melted silver she will dip her belaying pin (club from the sailor background) into it. After it cools a bit she will cut off a length of rope, partially unwind it to get lengths of thinner twine and wrap it in three separate lines around the silver to secure it tightly to the club.
She would offer to do the same others if asked. For Cimeri, she would take the silver and pour it out into little lines on a rock and pry the up after. Taking some of the twine from the unravelled rope, she would bend the slivers of silver around it creating barbs sticking up. Then taking the barbed twine. She would either give her gloves to her or if she has them, wrap the twine around so the silver barbs were around he knuckles.
That is, she would do this if acceptable. I'd assume this would be fairly straightforward compared to trying to forge a dagger or such.
If the silver melting plan works, Fulcra would attempt to silver his crossbow bolts. At night, he will surround his hammock in silver spikes sticking out of the ground, covered in leaves or what not.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer? Class.
Azaka listens to Taman's ideas with excitement. "Yes, Robes. Can you change the sound? Louder? Booming? But wait until we are off the lake and swamp; the sound will bounce from the water and bring an undead plague upon the nature here. In the trees, the leaves will dampen the sound. Or so my reasoning would tell me…"
Azaka makes for speed, hustling you all to the canoe and making for the edge of the swamp and the lake proper; away from the twisted roots and grasses of the swamp, the canoe cuts the water with greater speed. The canoe stays close to the bank to keep from the winds pushing back out on the lake. Azaka keeps an eye at the tops of the overhanging jungle trees as she steers the watercraft from the back as Celtra's eyes find the safe path at the bow.
Looking at those trees, you hope Azaka's information about her peers waiting to hunt you until out of the swamp is correct; you feel, not for the first time, like a sitting duck out in this canoe…
Strange, small, shiny black creatures appear in the water every so often over the day; Bryn counts the most of them. Always in pairs. Perfectly round, half-hidden under the water. Less than three fingers across, probably. They silently appear and disappear.
You lose track of the black bubbles as rain begins to fall hard from the grey thunderclouds overhead, sweeping in from nowhere. Thoroughly sodden, soaked and waterlogged, you all forge on in a swiftly filling canoe. Azaka looks miserable and growls curses, occasionally breaking into an ululating caterwaul. She looks sheepish afterward.
Usually the Chultan rains last ten minutes, aggressively. This afternoon does not. The rain pours on. Mist and fog rises, slapped into existence from the persistent precipitation.
Sneezing, Azaka steers the canoe back toward the swamp as the day shortens from gray to dark gray; Celtra peers ahead and sees the trees appear around all of you.
Chiirki huddles close to Cimeri on her shoulder, eyes shut against the falling rain.
At the edge of the fog swirling about tussocks and trunks, Fulcra notes the black bubbles around you all again, mentions it aloud. No one responds.
The rain pauses momentarily as you strike ground, drag the canoe through the mud, and tromp to a muddy, less wet place to camp. It promptly begins pouring again.
While Bryn is out looking for dry wood she notices small spheres half sunk in the deeper waters of the swamp, which she's noticed the whole day. The spheres are black and shiny, and quiver, and bob under the surface for many moments, to return to the surface again in a new location.
Celtra tries her trade over the campfire and notes that either a larger, hotter (and brighter and smokier) bonfire would be necessary, or each project would take two nights on the smaller fire. She gets halfway through her first project this night as the rain finally ends [you should let us know what order you want those projects to be].
Cimeri looks about the campsite, bedraggled. A wall of shadow has appeared about the camp, subtly moving forward. You can't make out what they are, but they're large and round and slowly coming this way.
Bryn stumbles backward over a tree root through the mud as the spheres begin to rise from the water near her; everywhere near her in fact. The small spheres were rising on stalks six inches long. Chitinous heads burst from the water accompanied by surging lobster-claws, black, wet and shiny, driving through the mud.
Water gushes and pours from their bodies; ten, fifteen in number? Big things. Taller than Bryn. Bottom half of their faces were human, capped by the carapace covered with eyes and eyestalks. They mobilize slowly, moving on spiderlike legs.
Both Bryn and Cimeri find themselves back in the center of the camp, dusk falling grey, with everyone else staring about them. The circle of Aldani, if this is what these are, closes around you, perhaps two dozen of the lobster-crayfish-people. They finally halt forty feet from you on all sides.
Silence, but for a beginning rain, tap-tapping off the carapaces around you.
One of them, directly opposite the water, facing you with back to the surrounding swamp takes an awkward step or six forward. Its mouth moves and a clacking you can only think of as cricket speech chirps out, though the 'chirp' is low and guttural, and is punctuated with chitin-clacks. More of the creatures take up the song. Song? No… it's a word. Isn't it?
After minutes you all realize two words being repeated one after or one before the other:
Celtra will work on making the silver barbed cord that Cimeri could have wrapped up for his fists. For the second project, not started tonight, she will be tapping holes in two sides of silver coins and then typing them together with twine from the rope. She will then slide them from the skinny side of the club up towards the fatter side and let friction keep them in place. Much like base ball bat weights. This should reduce the amount of time needed and resolve the need for a hot fire but she'll tackle that when she can.
-----
Jumping to to her feet when Cimeri and Bryn return to the group followed by the lobster like creatures. Her hand goes to her sword and she eyes them all with trepidation. She fears they may be overwhelmed when the chittering starts. Her anxiety rises as the chittering continues and goes on and on for a few minutes before the chittering seems to make some sense. Taking a tentative step forward she asks, "Help? Are you asking for help?"
"If you understand me, I will cast a spell that will allow me to understand your speech." Taman announces, stepping forward. He then takes ten minutes to ritually cast comprehend languages
Bryn would blink a couple times, and when she comes to the same realization as the others, she simply blurts, "How?" How could they help? She wondered.
Fulcra looks around with wide eyes and the lobster creatures. "Sure, we'll help. We'd love to. Looking forward to it. Let us know what we can do. Give our friend a sec here and he'll be able to understand you."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer? Class.
Cimeri did not even have time to get frightened (or crossed that line already, when something new could provoke fear). And once she realized creatures could talk, even caution left her thoughts, leaving curiosity in charge. She tried to nod in response - yes, we will help - but stopped. Unlikely nodding is how those creatures express agreement. She pointed at herself, Brynn and the cam, then slowly repeated: "Weee ... Heelp ... Yeees".
With the positive response from you, the Aldani look about at one another, and with a clattering clickety-clack of lobster-shell, many of them begin to back away from whence they came. One Aldani remains, waiting until its brethren recede from the camp and for Taman to finish his ritual.
Mystical blue energy swirls from the ritual circle Taman has laid out and fills his ears with swirling, fizzing mist.
"There," he says, standing from the crouch in front of the circle. "Please speak."
A clicking and sibilant syllable structure accompanies the noise coming from the Aldani's mouth. It's apparent that the Aldani language must have developed post-Common, with less word parts available; it's akin to translating human writing into binary code, and takes forever...for...Taman...to...translate...what...the...creature...is...saying...
Eventually the message is stated: Not far from this very position, a member of the Aldani clan has a problem; It's unclear how or why, but an Aldani child is stranded on a rock or cliff overlooking sacred ground where a predator has taken up residence. Taman struggles with the specifics of the species; it must be something he's never heard of, as the only words he can piece together don't seem to make sense to the Aldani...
"Is it an octopus?" No. "Is it a frog?" No. "Is it a giant?" No. "Is it dangerous?" Very. All of those concepts entered Taman's mind when the Aldani word was spoken. "And why can we help where your clan can not?" Aldani are slow; are non-Aldani quick? Lure creature away? Child safe?
Fulcra smiles broadly, "This is perfect. These guys are hard to spot, seem to notice a lot of stuff, and pretty much own the water territory. Ok....so, Mr Aldani sir...we will help you, but we ask you to help us in return. We are being hunted by were-tigers. We expect them to be hot on our trail. We'd like for your folks to watch for them, and if they come across the water, try your best to drown them. If you agree to try to kill or delay our hunters, we will certainly help you with your problem. Now....just to be clear, we're nice people, and we'll probably help you even if you don't agree to this...but...it'd be way better if you did agree, because ...well, that just gives us less of a chance of all being murdered by our hunters in exchange for delaying our flight in order to save one of your kids. So...what do you say?"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer? Class.
That speech did - either understood or translated by Taman - summed up everything so thoroughly, there was nothing to add. Probably only one question had to be asked (after the answer to Fulcra, of course): "Do you want us to go now?" Suffering child was the answer itself, of course, but moving during the night and under the rain could be ... troublesome.
"Lure away he say..." Bryn would sit cross legged in deep thought. Then she'd finally think out loud. "Panther quick. Spirits can make quicker? Long jump too?"
Taman looks thoughtful for a long moment. "I believe we can aid you." He says at last. "As my companion has said though, it would be nice if you could repay our aid with aid of your own. Those who follow us are dangerous, so I would not expect you to fight them directly, but if you know ways to slow, or misdirect them, that would be aid enough."
The aldani responds curtly in the affirmative, though details are not given, and within a moment the lobsterman is scuttle-lumbering to a nearby tussock. Massive pincers reach down to tug a clawful of the weeds from the mud, trailing root bulbs and mud. With a couple of deft movements of its claw, it separates a portion of the grass and stuffs the mud-covered roots in its mouth and turns back to you all.
It snatches up several more clumps of weeds and hands them out to you. "Must eat," it clacks. You look at one another until Azaka steps forward and bites down on the weeds with a frown. "No," corrects the creature, tapping the muddy root bulbs. "Eat here. Mud and roots. All of you. Then hold hands."
Skeptical glances dart between you until finally you've all decided it's best to do what the Aldani says and messily choke down the slimy roots. The Aldani waits until you all join hands, then holds out a rough claw for Azaka, the first in line, to hold. With its other claw it pries up the tussock of grass to reveal a small tunnel into the mud; water doesn't rush to fill it and you wonder about the physics, or perhaps magic, involved.
Suddenly the Aldani lurches forward, large body and chitin plates compressing as you look on incredulously before being tugged down. It dives head first into the tunnel pulling Azaka and the rest of you after. Before you can think mud is slapped up and into your face, around your body, and you're being pulled and compressed through a slime tunnel of mud at great speed. You feel suction pulling you forward, tugging occasionally to one side or the other right before your direction changes.
Perhaps five minutes later and an unknowable distance beyond, you pop out of the tunnel and back above-ground. You lie unbelieving, checking your clothes, possessions, hair... all clean and untouched by the mud. You're dry but for those parts of you that were wet before entering the tunnel. The Aldani moves ahead quickly trundling toward a massive, battle-ship sized rock amidst the water, reeds and trees of the swamp.
It stops about 200 feet from the huge rock, at the edge of a body of water encircling most of the ledge-sized boulder. A tiny aldani cowers in a depression in the side of the rock some fifteen feet off the ground, five feet from the top of the rock. It hides in the depression from a giant spider clinging to the side of the boulder about 20 feet away; it doesn't seem to have noticed the aldani yet, or perhaps it was chasing the child and lost it when it hid, but it will find it soon.
Some of you note how quiet the darkened swamp is, and also notice the silhouette of what might be an eyestalk protruding from the water in front of you, probably 150 feet away, between you and the giant spider.
Fulcra looks around in excitement, "That was fabulous. Was that not fabulous?! Oh, THAT is not fabulous. That is horrid. Have I mentioned how much I hate spiders. Despise them. They are terrifying. Truly. Ug. Well....." A shiver seems to run up his spine, and then he pushes at Bryn's back with both of his hands, "Off you go bait...take care of this situation for us..." He looks around with a mild guilt on his face at the rest of the group. "She offered. I mean, I suppose I could just throw some fire at it. I bet it can't swim across the water so well...we can just kill it from here...right? Unless it's a jumping spider. Why do those even exist. As if they needed more frightening abilities. Bait? Fire?"
(OOC: Is the body of water big enough to make it hard for the spider to cross easily? Does the spider look like it could scuttle across the 200 feet of water without trouble? If Bryn were to lead it away, is there any dry ground around here for her to give it a merry chase, or is it all swampy and water?)
"Wait!" as quietly as possible exclaimed Cimeri, "what is that?"She pointed at the eyestalk in the muddy water. "Is this the real scary monster, or some Aldani watching the spider?"Spiders were by far not her favourite creatures, but at least they were understandable danger, while something in the water - especially Chult water - would be most likely a nightmarish unknown.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"I am guessing the lobster folk wouldn't be so concerned about a single spider." Taman comments, nodding to the eyestalk. "I would guess that is the real threat..." He tries to get a better look at the submerged creature.
As Taman starts to say "Everyone step back...", the Aldani child shifts ever so slightly and pebbles and dust fall from it's niche to the water. The spider jerks toward the Aldani child, darting forward.
Without warning you're all soaked by spray as a giant tongue blasts forth out of a geyser of water before you; the spider is snatched into the waiting maw of the largest, strangest frog you've ever seen. A bellowing, resonant ribbit issues forth, followed by a burp as the spray settles, and you see a gigantic, wart covered frog, its eyes on stalks like a snail, and eight writhing tentacles waving menacingly around its enormous girth. It's a frog of elephant proportions that begins moving closer to the Aldani child.
What Cimeri did was mostly instinctive move - any village kid knows, that frogs can only see a moving target, with the emphasis on "see", the only sense they truly use to hunt. Cimeri made several steps to get closer to the giant frog, concentrated and cast - not truly knowing how - Darkness on the nose of the monster, trying to cover both of his eyes.
All that remained is to get the child before frog find the way to get rid of the effect.
Bryn will take in a big deep breath. No turning back now. She knew exactly how to get its attention now. Looking to the others with a quick nod before snapping her fingers and shifting into a Giant Wolf Spider. The spider would bounce up and down a few times and zigzag along the shore to try to get the frogs attention before skittering off to try dashing for her life.
During one of the evenings Celtra will take take a cook pot and toss her silver coins into it to melt them. With the melted silver she will dip her belaying pin (club from the sailor background) into it. After it cools a bit she will cut off a length of rope, partially unwind it to get lengths of thinner twine and wrap it in three separate lines around the silver to secure it tightly to the club.
She would offer to do the same others if asked. For Cimeri, she would take the silver and pour it out into little lines on a rock and pry the up after. Taking some of the twine from the unravelled rope, she would bend the slivers of silver around it creating barbs sticking up. Then taking the barbed twine. She would either give her gloves to her or if she has them, wrap the twine around so the silver barbs were around he knuckles.
That is, she would do this if acceptable. I'd assume this would be fairly straightforward compared to trying to forge a dagger or such.
If the silver melting plan works, Fulcra would attempt to silver his crossbow bolts. At night, he will surround his hammock in silver spikes sticking out of the ground, covered in leaves or what not.
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer?
Class.
Azaka listens to Taman's ideas with excitement. "Yes, Robes. Can you change the sound? Louder? Booming? But wait until we are off the lake and swamp; the sound will bounce from the water and bring an undead plague upon the nature here. In the trees, the leaves will dampen the sound. Or so my reasoning would tell me…"
Azaka makes for speed, hustling you all to the canoe and making for the edge of the swamp and the lake proper; away from the twisted roots and grasses of the swamp, the canoe cuts the water with greater speed. The canoe stays close to the bank to keep from the winds pushing back out on the lake. Azaka keeps an eye at the tops of the overhanging jungle trees as she steers the watercraft from the back as Celtra's eyes find the safe path at the bow.
Looking at those trees, you hope Azaka's information about her peers waiting to hunt you until out of the swamp is correct; you feel, not for the first time, like a sitting duck out in this canoe…
Strange, small, shiny black creatures appear in the water every so often over the day; Bryn counts the most of them. Always in pairs. Perfectly round, half-hidden under the water. Less than three fingers across, probably. They silently appear and disappear.
You lose track of the black bubbles as rain begins to fall hard from the grey thunderclouds overhead, sweeping in from nowhere. Thoroughly sodden, soaked and waterlogged, you all forge on in a swiftly filling canoe. Azaka looks miserable and growls curses, occasionally breaking into an ululating caterwaul. She looks sheepish afterward.
Usually the Chultan rains last ten minutes, aggressively. This afternoon does not. The rain pours on. Mist and fog rises, slapped into existence from the persistent precipitation.
Sneezing, Azaka steers the canoe back toward the swamp as the day shortens from gray to dark gray; Celtra peers ahead and sees the trees appear around all of you.
Chiirki huddles close to Cimeri on her shoulder, eyes shut against the falling rain.
At the edge of the fog swirling about tussocks and trunks, Fulcra notes the black bubbles around you all again, mentions it aloud. No one responds.
The rain pauses momentarily as you strike ground, drag the canoe through the mud, and tromp to a muddy, less wet place to camp. It promptly begins pouring again.
While Bryn is out looking for dry wood she notices small spheres half sunk in the deeper waters of the swamp, which she's noticed the whole day. The spheres are black and shiny, and quiver, and bob under the surface for many moments, to return to the surface again in a new location.
Celtra tries her trade over the campfire and notes that either a larger, hotter (and brighter and smokier) bonfire would be necessary, or each project would take two nights on the smaller fire. She gets halfway through her first project this night as the rain finally ends [you should let us know what order you want those projects to be].
Cimeri looks about the campsite, bedraggled. A wall of shadow has appeared about the camp, subtly moving forward. You can't make out what they are, but they're large and round and slowly coming this way.
Bryn stumbles backward over a tree root through the mud as the spheres begin to rise from the water near her; everywhere near her in fact. The small spheres were rising on stalks six inches long. Chitinous heads burst from the water accompanied by surging lobster-claws, black, wet and shiny, driving through the mud.
Water gushes and pours from their bodies; ten, fifteen in number? Big things. Taller than Bryn. Bottom half of their faces were human, capped by the carapace covered with eyes and eyestalks. They mobilize slowly, moving on spiderlike legs.
Both Bryn and Cimeri find themselves back in the center of the camp, dusk falling grey, with everyone else staring about them. The circle of Aldani, if this is what these are, closes around you, perhaps two dozen of the lobster-crayfish-people. They finally halt forty feet from you on all sides.
Silence, but for a beginning rain, tap-tapping off the carapaces around you.
One of them, directly opposite the water, facing you with back to the surrounding swamp takes an awkward step or six forward. Its mouth moves and a clacking you can only think of as cricket speech chirps out, though the 'chirp' is low and guttural, and is punctuated with chitin-clacks. More of the creatures take up the song. Song? No… it's a word. Isn't it?
After minutes you all realize two words being repeated one after or one before the other:
…
"H-E-L-L-L-L-P…"
"U-u-u-u-s-s-s-shhhhh…"
"H-E-L-L-L-L-P…"
"U-u-u-u-s-s-s-shhhhh…"
"H-E-L-L-L-L-P…"
"U-u-u-u-s-s-s-shhhhh…"
"H-E-L-L-L-L-P…"
…
Celtra will work on making the silver barbed cord that Cimeri could have wrapped up for his fists. For the second project, not started tonight, she will be tapping holes in two sides of silver coins and then typing them together with twine from the rope. She will then slide them from the skinny side of the club up towards the fatter side and let friction keep them in place. Much like base ball bat weights. This should reduce the amount of time needed and resolve the need for a hot fire but she'll tackle that when she can.
-----
Jumping to to her feet when Cimeri and Bryn return to the group followed by the lobster like creatures. Her hand goes to her sword and she eyes them all with trepidation. She fears they may be overwhelmed when the chittering starts. Her anxiety rises as the chittering continues and goes on and on for a few minutes before the chittering seems to make some sense. Taking a tentative step forward she asks, "Help? Are you asking for help?"
"If you understand me, I will cast a spell that will allow me to understand your speech." Taman announces, stepping forward. He then takes ten minutes to ritually cast comprehend languages
Bryn would blink a couple times, and when she comes to the same realization as the others, she simply blurts, "How?" How could they help? She wondered.
just an unstable unicorn.
Fulcra looks around with wide eyes and the lobster creatures. "Sure, we'll help. We'd love to. Looking forward to it. Let us know what we can do. Give our friend a sec here and he'll be able to understand you."
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer?
Class.
Cimeri did not even have time to get frightened (or crossed that line already, when something new could provoke fear). And once she realized creatures could talk, even caution left her thoughts, leaving curiosity in charge. She tried to nod in response - yes, we will help - but stopped. Unlikely nodding is how those creatures express agreement. She pointed at herself, Brynn and the cam, then slowly repeated: "Weee ... Heelp ... Yeees".
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
With the positive response from you, the Aldani look about at one another, and with a clattering clickety-clack of lobster-shell, many of them begin to back away from whence they came. One Aldani remains, waiting until its brethren recede from the camp and for Taman to finish his ritual.
Mystical blue energy swirls from the ritual circle Taman has laid out and fills his ears with swirling, fizzing mist.
"There," he says, standing from the crouch in front of the circle. "Please speak."
A clicking and sibilant syllable structure accompanies the noise coming from the Aldani's mouth. It's apparent that the Aldani language must have developed post-Common, with less word parts available; it's akin to translating human writing into binary code, and takes forever...for...Taman...to...translate...what...the...creature...is...saying...
Eventually the message is stated: Not far from this very position, a member of the Aldani clan has a problem; It's unclear how or why, but an Aldani child is stranded on a rock or cliff overlooking sacred ground where a predator has taken up residence. Taman struggles with the specifics of the species; it must be something he's never heard of, as the only words he can piece together don't seem to make sense to the Aldani...
"Is it an octopus?" No. "Is it a frog?" No. "Is it a giant?" No. "Is it dangerous?" Very. All of those concepts entered Taman's mind when the Aldani word was spoken. "And why can we help where your clan can not?" Aldani are slow; are non-Aldani quick? Lure creature away? Child safe?
What do you do?
Fulcra smiles broadly, "This is perfect. These guys are hard to spot, seem to notice a lot of stuff, and pretty much own the water territory. Ok....so, Mr Aldani sir...we will help you, but we ask you to help us in return. We are being hunted by were-tigers. We expect them to be hot on our trail. We'd like for your folks to watch for them, and if they come across the water, try your best to drown them. If you agree to try to kill or delay our hunters, we will certainly help you with your problem. Now....just to be clear, we're nice people, and we'll probably help you even if you don't agree to this...but...it'd be way better if you did agree, because ...well, that just gives us less of a chance of all being murdered by our hunters in exchange for delaying our flight in order to save one of your kids. So...what do you say?"
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer?
Class.
That speech did - either understood or translated by Taman - summed up everything so thoroughly, there was nothing to add. Probably only one question had to be asked (after the answer to Fulcra, of course): "Do you want us to go now?" Suffering child was the answer itself, of course, but moving during the night and under the rain could be ... troublesome.
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
"Lure away he say..." Bryn would sit cross legged in deep thought. Then she'd finally think out loud. "Panther quick. Spirits can make quicker? Long jump too?"
just an unstable unicorn.
Taman looks thoughtful for a long moment. "I believe we can aid you." He says at last. "As my companion has said though, it would be nice if you could repay our aid with aid of your own. Those who follow us are dangerous, so I would not expect you to fight them directly, but if you know ways to slow, or misdirect them, that would be aid enough."
The aldani responds curtly in the affirmative, though details are not given, and within a moment the lobsterman is scuttle-lumbering to a nearby tussock. Massive pincers reach down to tug a clawful of the weeds from the mud, trailing root bulbs and mud. With a couple of deft movements of its claw, it separates a portion of the grass and stuffs the mud-covered roots in its mouth and turns back to you all.
It snatches up several more clumps of weeds and hands them out to you. "Must eat," it clacks. You look at one another until Azaka steps forward and bites down on the weeds with a frown. "No," corrects the creature, tapping the muddy root bulbs. "Eat here. Mud and roots. All of you. Then hold hands."
Skeptical glances dart between you until finally you've all decided it's best to do what the Aldani says and messily choke down the slimy roots. The Aldani waits until you all join hands, then holds out a rough claw for Azaka, the first in line, to hold. With its other claw it pries up the tussock of grass to reveal a small tunnel into the mud; water doesn't rush to fill it and you wonder about the physics, or perhaps magic, involved.
Suddenly the Aldani lurches forward, large body and chitin plates compressing as you look on incredulously before being tugged down. It dives head first into the tunnel pulling Azaka and the rest of you after. Before you can think mud is slapped up and into your face, around your body, and you're being pulled and compressed through a slime tunnel of mud at great speed. You feel suction pulling you forward, tugging occasionally to one side or the other right before your direction changes.
Perhaps five minutes later and an unknowable distance beyond, you pop out of the tunnel and back above-ground. You lie unbelieving, checking your clothes, possessions, hair... all clean and untouched by the mud. You're dry but for those parts of you that were wet before entering the tunnel. The Aldani moves ahead quickly trundling toward a massive, battle-ship sized rock amidst the water, reeds and trees of the swamp.
It stops about 200 feet from the huge rock, at the edge of a body of water encircling most of the ledge-sized boulder. A tiny aldani cowers in a depression in the side of the rock some fifteen feet off the ground, five feet from the top of the rock. It hides in the depression from a giant spider clinging to the side of the boulder about 20 feet away; it doesn't seem to have noticed the aldani yet, or perhaps it was chasing the child and lost it when it hid, but it will find it soon.
Some of you note how quiet the darkened swamp is, and also notice the silhouette of what might be an eyestalk protruding from the water in front of you, probably 150 feet away, between you and the giant spider.
What do you do?
Fulcra looks around in excitement, "That was fabulous. Was that not fabulous?! Oh, THAT is not fabulous. That is horrid. Have I mentioned how much I hate spiders. Despise them. They are terrifying. Truly. Ug. Well....." A shiver seems to run up his spine, and then he pushes at Bryn's back with both of his hands, "Off you go bait...take care of this situation for us..." He looks around with a mild guilt on his face at the rest of the group. "She offered. I mean, I suppose I could just throw some fire at it. I bet it can't swim across the water so well...we can just kill it from here...right? Unless it's a jumping spider. Why do those even exist. As if they needed more frightening abilities. Bait? Fire?"
(OOC: Is the body of water big enough to make it hard for the spider to cross easily? Does the spider look like it could scuttle across the 200 feet of water without trouble? If Bryn were to lead it away, is there any dry ground around here for her to give it a merry chase, or is it all swampy and water?)
What's the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer?
Class.
"Wait!" as quietly as possible exclaimed Cimeri, "what is that?" She pointed at the eyestalk in the muddy water. "Is this the real scary monster, or some Aldani watching the spider?" Spiders were by far not her favourite creatures, but at least they were understandable danger, while something in the water - especially Chult water - would be most likely a nightmarish unknown.
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
"I am guessing the lobster folk wouldn't be so concerned about a single spider." Taman comments, nodding to the eyestalk. "I would guess that is the real threat..." He tries to get a better look at the submerged creature.
Perception: 7
As Taman starts to say "Everyone step back...", the Aldani child shifts ever so slightly and pebbles and dust fall from it's niche to the water. The spider jerks toward the Aldani child, darting forward.
Without warning you're all soaked by spray as a giant tongue blasts forth out of a geyser of water before you; the spider is snatched into the waiting maw of the largest, strangest frog you've ever seen. A bellowing, resonant ribbit issues forth, followed by a burp as the spray settles, and you see a gigantic, wart covered frog, its eyes on stalks like a snail, and eight writhing tentacles waving menacingly around its enormous girth. It's a frog of elephant proportions that begins moving closer to the Aldani child.
You've only moments to act, what do you do?
What Cimeri did was mostly instinctive move - any village kid knows, that frogs can only see a moving target, with the emphasis on "see", the only sense they truly use to hunt. Cimeri made several steps to get closer to the giant frog, concentrated and cast - not truly knowing how - Darkness on the nose of the monster, trying to cover both of his eyes.
All that remained is to get the child before frog find the way to get rid of the effect.
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Bryn will take in a big deep breath. No turning back now. She knew exactly how to get its attention now. Looking to the others with a quick nod before snapping her fingers and shifting into a Giant Wolf Spider. The spider would bounce up and down a few times and zigzag along the shore to try to get the frogs attention before skittering off to try dashing for her life.
just an unstable unicorn.