While in some ways a hopeful sign of their drawing close to the village of Wierding, Khan squinted suspiciously at Ang's findings. She croaks out something in Grung to her fellows, and by extension Ghee.

 The Watchers would see her smile at Ghee, only to lose it upon turning to them next. "Good chance local boat. Seeing if so. Seeing if nearby. Khan find nearby tree. Keeps eye out. Should have strange bird do same." She said. For a brief moment, it looked as if she might add more. But she catches herself, shakes her head, and then without another word looked around for a high enough tree to scamper up without getting any closer or being too far away from the canoe. 

Perception: 12. (if needed to find a good spot)

Seems odd to leave a boat in good condition in an area like this where anyone who came across it would find it. Standard practice in these parts would likely be to hide the boat or leave a few burly members of crew behind to discourage any boat theft. The fact it stands alone and unguarded, well that doesn't sit right.

Nodding his agreement to Khan's orders, Ghee decides to wait to follow the lead of Ang and B'leep, making a play of joining them so as not to tip his hand to their green dwarf and rock gnome companions. As he waits for the purple grung to begin, Ghee let's his eyes drift over the surrounding jungle and river.

Perception 11

With a nod of acknowledgement and a thought Saros sends Omen up into the canopy again to scout the area, and Saros will sit down close his eyes and send his sense out to join with Omen's to see what the raven sees.

Perception 11, Stealth 10

Darrik will sit back and wait for Saros to do his thing.  He's seen the whole raven maneuver before.

Bleep will move silently around the area, looking for any sign of whoever left the canoe.

Stealth: 24

Perception: 13

Ang looks carefully around. "A canoe, this means non-grung... humanoids maybe..."
She silently approaches and starts looking for clues in the canoe.

Investigation: 14

DM's Screen:

Upon spotting the canoe, most of the party becomes a bit suspicious. Khan gives her team some orders and climbs a nearby tree to keep watch. Ghee, Ang, and Bleep approach the vessel and its vicinity to investigate, and Saros charges Omen with serving as a second scout. Seeing the others engage so tactically with their finding, Darrik decides his help is not needed and simply waits.

@Khan & @Saros: From your high vantage points, you are the first ones in the party to notice that the canoe is not empty. Two humanoid skeletons lie within the vessel, locked in an embrace. Their simple clothes have all but rotted away, and the skeletons look picked clean, suggesting they have been undisturbed for quite some time.

@Ghee & @ Bleep: Your quick scouting of the area, be it a silent one or not, turns up no results. At a minimum, you are both fairly confident that there is no one lying in wait. As far as you can tell, the canoe is not serving as a lure for an ambush.

@Ang: Once you get close to the vessel, you also spot the skeletons. Looking past them, you notice the canoe is in fairly good shape with the exception of a couple of bumps here and there. You estimate that with some minor repairs, the canoe can be made waterworthy again, and that it could help you speed your trek alongside the rivulet. This could help the party compensate for the hours lost due to sleeping in this morning, and since everyone is quite small, you should all fit snugly if needed. You share your findings with the rest of the party hoping for a group decision to be made.

"Well, if we spend a bit of time on it, we could repair it. This is still in good shape. We could travel faster, using the current. What do you say?"

Snapping his senses back into his body, Saros takes a moment to orientate himself.  "Why walk when you can sit....unless there are beasts in the river that might attack the boat" and he looks to the Grung for guidance given they seem to be more familiar with the jungle that he.. 

Darrik will peer at the river, looking for any beasts.

Perception: 10

"Nah.  I dinnae see any beasts."

"So we could use the fine vessel presented tae us here, but does anyone ken if we've any oars? More important; anyone ken how tae use em?"

Thinking of their party sailing straight by their destination puts a smile on Ghee's dwarven face, crinkling his wrinkles.

Khan seemed skeptical initally, but soon dropped down again to join her fellow Grungs; and by extension, everyone else that begun gather around there. "Not bad suggestion. Can make oars too maybe. But, risky. River creatures trixy if deep enough. May not see now, but they lurk. And not just in waters but above. The trees overhang. Not use boats often ourselves. Too enclosed. Too vulnerable usually." She both warns and admits as much, before then shaking her head.

"But time of essence. Just don't take dip or drink water and should be fine." Khan adds briskly while giving previously mentioned notions a dismissive wave. "Find Oars. Make Oars. Patch holes. Ang and B'leep take point. Khan goes back to keep watch. Make sure no others surprise."

Bleep will look for materials to patch the holes in the canoe and to craft makeshift oars.

Survival: 8

Ang shares her findings and suggests the party invest some time into repairing the water vessel. The group generally agrees, though some still show a bit of concern. Saros is worried about beasts in the river, prompting Darrik to look around to see if there are any obvious threats about. He finds nothing but rapidly swimming fish. Similarly, Khan goes back to her vantage point but spots nothing of concern in the vicinity.

Ghee raises a good point about oars. The river flow should be enough to carry the canoe, but oars would make the trip even shorter. On that note, and on Khan's orders, Bleep begins to look around for usable materials. Unfortunately, she finds nothing that would be immediately useful. The group could use three branches and large leaves to fashion oars, but that would take time and an expertise none of them really have. Perhaps tree bark and sap could be used to patch up the boat, but there is a risk it won't be enough. There doesn't seem to be any obvious solutions around, but with some creativity and time, perhaps a solution will present itself.

After all party members exchange some looks, they begin looking at their own equipment and supplies to see what could be useful in repairing the boat. With no skilled shipwright or carpenter in the group, Ghee comes out being the one with the closest skill set to offer. Perhaps he can use a combination of his mason's tools and his smith's tools and materials to patch up the canoe a bit. It really only needs to be usable for the next hours in any case...

Sitting himself on a handy nearby rock Ghee sets down his pack and produces two sets of tools careful rolled together in lengths of canvas tied up with leather cord.

Scratching his head a moment he looks to the others.

"Ahm gonna be honest, boats are beyond ma ken. Stone, aye. But she disnae float. Metal, aye. Same bloody problem."

Waving his hands at the tools set out before him he invites the others to use what they can.

"These could fell a tree, sure. But likely not easily as they aren't meant for it. We could fashion oars of a kind, poles at least. But patchin' the hull o' this fine ship? Well, I'm open tae ideas."

Hoping off his perch, Ghee takes up some likely looking tools and begins finding promising young trees to fashion poles from, before turning his attention to more sturdy fare to fashion oars.

(OOC Here goes nothing... Also assuming strength checks for this part and doing two in case of different DCs for flexible poles and sturdy oars.)

Check 1 - 15

Check 2 - 19

With searching for raw materials not panning out, Bleep approaches Ang, offering any assistance he may give.

(@MB: In the interest of keeping things moving, I'll chose to reinterpret your two rolls as the following: first roll for creating poles/oars; second roll for fixing the boat.) 

-> I'm adding an advantage roll to each of Ghee's checks to account for Bleep's continuous help: 12 16

Feeling all the eyes and hopes of the party turn to him, Ghee pulls out his sets of mason's tools and smith's tools in order to patch up the canoe. He starts by cutting down the straightest of tree branches Bleep is able to find. They use a combination of the dwarf's spear and a set of hammer and chisel. It is not a clean job, as the tools are less than ideal, but assuming the river is not too deep, the dwarf manages to craft a simple pole for pushing the boat forward as if it were a gondola.

Next, the pair extracts some sticky tree sap from the nearby trunks, and use it to glue the loose board-ends they spot on the canoe's body. It takes a little while for it to dry properly, but Ghee's tools come in handy in holding the pieces in place for the required time. The repairs are not likely to hold for many trips up and down the river, but that was never the goal anyway.

Skeletons removed, the party then fits snugly inside the canoe and are careful enough to use a few leaves as separators such that no one is touching the grungs' poisonous skin other than the grungs themselves. The steady flow of the river is helped by Ghee's rhythmic pole pushes, and the party makes even better time on the vessel.

As Khan had mentioned, however, this is not one of the frogfolk's preferred methods of travel. So much so that the river's sudden turns and accelerating flow feel unfamiliar to the grungs. At some point, the water flow has become fast enough for Ghee's pole to be of no further use. At first, this is good news: an hours's worth of traveling downriver has easily saved the group twice as much time on land. Soon however, the river begins to turn a bit to acutely, while the water speed has only continued to increase. Before they can grasp the severity of their situation, OGA + Watchers are traversing rapids!

(OOC: We'll be using Saltmarsh whirlpool rules for this section of rapids. This is a group skill check where each party member will need to temporarily play one of the following roles: captain, first mate; bosun, quartermaster, crew member(x2). Please take a look at the spoiler below to see what type of check you'll need to make.)

OOC: Well Saros has a +7  INT check, so that is a natural fit for him, but don't know if Khan's superiority complex will allow that...however:

Saros looks very alarmed when the canoe enters the rapids, concerned that he and the dwarves might soon find themselves in the water, and calls out "We must keep the canoe in the current and avoid the rocks.....give me the pole,  I will do what I can to keep teh nose pointing ahead" reaching out his hand expectantly. 

(Darrik can't really do anything other than Bosun with any level of certainty.)

(@Muggs: Don't think your proficient in anything relevant to captain-ing, so it'd be +4 bonus. That said, that's still the highest in the group.)

"Not good! Not like! Dead Waters!" Khan exclaimed while barely keeping any semblance of balance in the boat. Despite such her growing fear, she doesn't miss Saros attempt to -- 'No. Not take command. Simply saving his own skin' She thought firmly, cutting off another line of thinking. "Give pole to not-Goblin. Mr. Gee give tools to other Dwarf. B'leep find path. Ang help however can. Chop, Chop, people or become one with Dead Water!" She commands after gesticulating sharply to each person in turn, taking to the "First Mate" position swiftly.

Because if nothing else, she couldn't ascend while being dead.

Intimidation #1: 16.