Morn's Athletic Check: 19

Samael goes to help, but over balances, landing facedown with a loud splash. He tries to push himself back up, but his arms just sink into the muck, and the stagnant water closes over his head!

Morn's got a good hold on the rope, and is well positioned to help pull Sirq and Horatio out... but someone ought to do something about Samael before he drowns...

mage hand to clear out the muck around samael! (that oughta buy me time to breathe.)

Once Horatio and Sirq are out of the mud, if no one else has thrown in a rope, then Morn will throw the rope in again to help Samael, calling out for anyone to help pull him in as he does.

Trinjya watches this spectacular show with amusement. When Samael starts to sink in face first, she walks over to help him, still laughing.

She tries to pull him out by his feet. (Athletics: A 10)

Samael's mage hand plunges into the muck to try to clear it away from his mouth, and it's slightly more effective than using one's hand to try to push the air away from one's face... in that there's a moment where enough is removed to hear a gurgling sucking sound as he tries to get a breath, before the water and silt flows back in.

Suddenly, a lank of the wet hair on the back of Samael's head sticks straight up, as if it were being pulled, and there is a flapping sound as his head is hauled up, dripping and mucky as Samael draws in a gasping, hacking breath. Trinjya leaps into action, wading to Samael as something clips her on the shoulder before his hair goes slack again, and she manages to haul him back to shore.

((Congrats on barely meeting the DC 10 to not get stuck in the mud!))

((Looks like I am the one eyed amongst the blind with my lucky rolls))

Trinjya hauls  Samael on the first dry (as far as it gets around here) patch of ground she can find and sits down next to him, still laughing.

"We are such a fine bunch of adventurers. Basically unstoppable." And she bursts into laughter again.

After a few seconds, she is able to suppress her laughter to an occasional giggle.

"Damned, i haven't had a laugh like that in quite some time. Hey Morn, maybe we can find a place on the other side of this mudhole to tie that rope of yours to. I mean, it's not like any of us would risk drowning in this hand's width of water but it would be easyer to get across if we could pull our self out."

Morn nods and scratches his chin, looking out over the muck towards the next marker.

(DM Question - The next marker was out in the water/mud 60ft away, correct? Are there any paths that lead nearer to it, rather than a direct route?)

((The raised portion where you'd been walking basically divided this portion of the swamp in two, you've reached a place where that raised portion is not longer present, and the markers continue, at the very least to the one 60 ft away, the vegetation makes it hard to see if the raised portion returns beyond that or not, though it would be in line to do so, as it's been fairly straight so far. From where you are, the straightest, fastest way to the next marker would seem to be the way everyone was going, it's a wade through water and muck any way you could go to get there. I suppose if someone was a squirrel, hopping through the canopy would be easier, but none of the limbs would support humanoids trying to traverse that way.))

Hgru face palms, and seems to be wondering if the healer's kit and cut of future loot was worth it.

"i would appreciate if you took less amusement from my woe." Samael coldly remarks. "I would have ended up in Minauros if you had been too consumed with mirth, and you and the others would no doubt have joined me."

((Just for the sake of getting a feel for how stern Samael's looking, lets have Intimidation at disadvantage?))

9 intimidation roll

His voice means business, but his face says 'I'm covered in swamp muck because I just fell into a swamp face first".

Morn turns to Hgru, "Perhaps the marsh folk have ways to better traverse these mires? Rather than us getting ourselves rather stuck every few metres. You had to expect that this kind of terrain was a possibility, so what measures do you and your kin take to move through here?"

Trinjya bursts out into laughter once again at Samael's reaction.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but the mud on your face makes you look like an angry toad. It's making it do hard to resist. I won't let you drown toadsi, I promise."

"Hahaha! Angry toad! Boots get stuck, point toes when you step, lift heel first, poke with stick to make sure you don't stick toes in bog turtle mouth. Go slow, keep weight above feet."

She demonstrates, moving confidently through the swamp.

Horatio, still game but a little fazed by the party's struggles in the muck, cautiously tries to imitate the guide.

he holds it in until he makes it across and then hgru and trinjya hear this.

"Oh, really? Can a toad do THIS?"

He casts command: grovel on both of them (I have one slot still open and a good amount of battle cantrips. IDGAF)

((Athletics checks to cross, try to beat a DC 10.))

Sensing rising tensions, Horatio casts false life  on himself (8 temp hp for next hour)