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Part 1
They are falling!
Their ship, the H.M.S Hammer, was about 200 metres up in
the air when the five were hurled off of it by a thunder-wave spell.
Moments after the storm elementals hurled the Hammer from
their towering waterspout. Gods! The falling conscripts had never
even seen or had heard of such a storm before. It is like every air
and water elemental on the face of Jieve has gathered in the bay.
Tossing around the thousand tonne warships of the armada like
common trash. Gleefully drowning soldiers and sailors and dogs
and horses, making a mockery of the greatest naval force ever
assembled by mortals. Now they are drifting down through the
sheets of rain, with a foreign jungle canopy below their feet and
nothing but Gramarldys feather-fall spell to keep them from
smashing their bodies of flesh and bone against the tree branches
and hard ground. The massive war boat, that had been these
soldiers stinky home for the last 3 months, continues its crazy
cartwheel in the sky above and beyond. It arks farther inland to
the rainforest, and crashes with a tremendous cacophony. A boom
one tear that splashed on her head, causing her to grow still and
clear, like a glass statue of herself.
For all of them the visions ended when Sergent Bilux, who
always seemed to enjoy putting their party on cleaning detail,
was suddenly among them, screaming his low opinion of their
ancestries and berating their slack jaw, weak minded
predilections towards distractions. He made them all do dozens
and dozens of push-ups and burpees in the hot tropical sun as
punishment. That was yesterday, right now though, it is cold and
grey as the warriors continue to drift down from the storm clouds
to the mountain slope below. The tree tops rise up to their feet.
The wet leaves slap them as they slowly fall through them. They
drift down past the tree branches, where startled monkeys clutch
their monkey babies to their chests and stare at them with wide
eyes. After a few seconds, they land lightly on their feet on the
rainforest floor.
Bo Jingles giggles to himself, still in shock from the recent
events. Snickering out the words monkey babies through his
muffled laughter.
Bor Ealis too notices the monkeys babies, exclaiming I want
to eat a monkey baby. Possibly as a joke, though Orma is unsure.
You want to eat a monkey baby, we can make this happen,
you guys, comments Albus, as he walks up beside the much
shorter Paladin. Sounding oddly jovial about the prospect of
eating the young creatures, a quick Eldritch Blast, would do the
trick.
Their skulls are probably still soft, mutters Mogar, as he
readjusts his armour and weapons. As a dragon-born, he had no
qualms about eating the creatures, food was food, the easier it is
to eat the better. Feeling uneasy about the conversation, Orma
quickly tries to change the subject, I know things aren't going
well for our army, but I have to say that this is better than doing
burpees, It is better, the warlock agrees, turning his attention
away from the treetops, though I mustn't have done enough as I
still don't feel all that strong. Albus turns to face the Orma,
reflecting briefly back to all the times he threw up whilst training
aboard the Hammer. It must be because I had to go inside a lot to
put salve on my flakey skin. Having finally moved away from the
topic of eating baby monkeys, the five of them gather together on
that rainy Tuesday morning to discuss what to do next.
Part 2
Each of them review what they saw as they slowly fell away
from the warship, with Albus adding what he glimpsed with his
keen eyesight. Each party member take stock of the situation.
There are five of them, it's Tuesday morning, the only weapons
and armour they have are the ones on their persons, they are
thousands of miles away from home; deep in enemy territory and
most of their allies are dead or missing. What do we do? Is the
question lying unspoken above all of their heads of themselves.
Bor Ealis is the first to speak. We need to execute our
mission. Right, Mogar growels in agreement, itching with
anticipation for the battles ahead. The human paladin continues,
enjoying his moment of leadership We need to head off and find
the Kumin. So ah
Wait a minute, Albus interjects, much to Bor Ealis displeasure,
Do we know anything about this Robinson Crusoe village in the
East, did we get some intel on it before we landed?.
The paladin grits his teeth, working hard to control his
annoyance for the mix-breed mages antics. That is irrelevant
retorts Bor Ealis, in a tone of voice he hopes stops the fool from
commenting further.
Albus, never great with social cues, simply ignores this and
continues his argument to visit the village. But what if that's
where some allies are, what if it's a rebel faction.
We didn't come here to find Allies Mogar says to the warlock,
clearly sharing his fellow Paladins irritation for Albus
interruptions.
What's the point of executing our mission. The whole God damn
armadas dead, Bo Jingles ways into the discussion, his voice
sounding slightly hysterical as he is still in shock from the past
events.
Yeah, Orma concedes.
They'll catch up, The human Paladin says quickly, desiring to
only get back to discussing his plan. Their not all dead.
I mean, you know, it's just the soldiers Mogar starts to explain
something but is quickly interrupted by Albus.
The waterspout catapulting a ship until it exploded is clearly
indicative of doom.
We lived, we lived so other people may have lived to Bor Ealis
states. His irritation with the half breed growing by the minute.
It's c-c-cold wines Bo Jingles, his shock clearly now having a
physical affect on him, as though the jungle had been cooled by
the rain, the temperature had not dropped noticeably since the
adventures arrival. As they all stand gathered together under the
a jungle tree, Albus wonders about the Tieflings mental fortitude,
perhaps, he thinks, this may be useful in the future.
Yeah, I think that there's probably not going to be a lot of allies
over here. Orma reasons, continuing the conversation, paying no
attention to the half-demons moaning, We came in wrong, we
should have been a little bit friendlier.
Alright that's fair, the half-elf finally concedes, You want to go to
the cave
So we can go the city, the cave or the fucking uh... lazy river
Bo Jingles sums up the options to no one in particular. Now
starting to shake visibly.
The cave! We stick to the cave, man, it was in the plan!, Mogar
yells at the bard, bearing his sharp fangs at the much smaller
creature. The dragon-born was quickly losing his patience with
this pointless talking.
grabs her spear and flings it at the scaly creature in the tree.
Hitting it with an audible smack of wood, steel and flesh. Mogar
watches her throw with awe.
Albus is still distracted, now noticing that his boot laces are
loose.
Inhaling deeply, Mogar lets loose an icy cloud that spreads
into the tree top. It engulfs the boa. Being cold blooded, the snake
starts to convulse wildly. Its spasming body causes it to fall from
the tree.
Get it exclaims the dragon-born, the thrill of battle causing his
heart to beat quicker in his chest,
Swinging his great sword, Bor brings the blade down on the
serpent, chopping it in half. Mogar grins, his respect for his fellow
paladin grows. He does not grasp yet that Bor does not respect
the dragonborn, only tolerating his presence.
The cracking of branches can be heard from the tree behind
the party, a second boa rears down from the branches and strikes
at Orma. It bites deep into her arm, wrapping the rest of its body
around her. The serpent begins to squeeze.
This new commotion finally breaks through to Albus. He
turns away from his untied laces. Snake! he yells in surprise,
then seeing the other one on the ground, he adds, oh wait, that
one's dead. Pivoting, he fires an eldritch blast at the second
snake, making an effort not to hit the ensnared barbarian. The
magical energy arcs out and strikes the boa constrictors thick
body, easily avoiding Orma. Upon the blast hitting the snake, the
warlock let's out a happy shout yay! I hit it,
The creature continues to ensnare the orc buts its coils has
loosened slightly.
Bo Jingles backs away from this new snake, but aids his allie
with a song of encouragement.
Hoof, hoof, hee, hoof, hoof, hee Is how we breath When the
snake is eating us Hoof, hoof, hee, hoof, hoof, hee
The silly song makes Orma glare at the slowly retreating
tiefling, but she recognises that she now feels more confident in
her ability to defeat the serpent. Orma wiggles her other arm
enough to grab her maul. With some effort, she frantically strikes
at the boa. Despite the awkwardness of maneuvering around the
snake, and almost hitting herself in the process, she is able to hit
it good on the head. Hearing a crunching noise when the maul
hits the head, the thing goes limp.
Part 3
Orma looks down at the now dead snake. Realising that she
has not eaten since that morning, she see this as a great
opportunity for some snake meat. When she looks closer at the
newly slain creatures, she notices that these snakes do not look
healthy. Their scales seem to covered in canker sores, with pus
oozing out of them. Their eye are misted with cataracts. They do
not look healthy.
Bor Ealis, Mogar and Albus too notice the state of the
creatures. The four of them notice that not only do these animals
look unhealthy, but alse the vegetation around the area seems to
be diseased. The leaves are almost wilted on the trees, and now
that they think about it the monkeys that they saw up in the
trees looked emaciated. The whole jungle looks unhealthy.
Despite these new insights into the state of the jungle,
Mogar chops of a piece of the snake to take with him. Albus
approves of his decision, he believes that there may be more to
learn from the area if samples are taken. Mogar on the other hand
recognises that the meat may contain substances that could be
used to poison enemies. Orma only knows that the only thing
snakes are to be used for is to be smashed.
The only member of the party who has not realised the
nature of the snakes is Bo Jingles, who has remained as far away
quickly ducks it head back behind the tree. You there, Holt!, he
shouts. Hearing no response, he bravely charges the tree. Wait,
wait, wait, take it easy Albus yells frantically trying to stop Bor
Ealis from charging the tree. Dont tell him to wait Mogar says,
let him do whatever he wants, ok. Hes a goddamn paladin. Bor
Ealis believes that since they are in enemy lands so whatever he
sees must be a foe. The face was green with sharp teeth lineing
the inside of it mouth, and the it had been giving was weird and
unsettling. Bor Ealis runs straight at the tree that the creature was
hiding behind with his great ax drawn. He runs up to the tree with
his axe, once there he looks around but the creature is no longer
there. He glances upwards, hoping that the creature has hidden
itself within the trees branches, but he does not see anything.
Albus looks around too for the creature. As the half-elf looks, Bor
turns back to the party warning them that there was a green, ugly
non-human hiding behind the tree. Orma glares at Bor Ealis. It
was an ugly non-human, Bor Ealis says defensively, I didnt say
all non-humans were ugly, which they are, I was saying that this
non-human was ugly. The orc starts to have a low level growl in
the back of her throat. As Albus looks over at the tree, and he
starts to see brightness coming from below. He looks down and
notices that his crotch was on fire. Shocked at first, he quickly
determines that the fire is not burning. Hey tiefling, Albus says,
still not overly concerned with the flames emanating from his
crotch. Yeah, whats up, Bo Jingles responds casually, oh my
god, your dicks on fire.
Did you give me the crotch fires again
You better put it out, that looks terrible, the bard says, grinning
widely.
It you dont put the crotch fire out the snakes will come back for
you, Albus says warningly.
Itll put itself out in a minute, don't worry about it,
Everyone sees Albuss crotch on fire, they looks at him and
laugh, enjoying this moment of levity.
They continue to travel north until they see the land begin to
rise again. The rainstorm has died down now, but the jungle floor
is still soggy. Orma catches some of the droplets on her hand
checking to see if the blight that is affecting the jungle, is also
messing with the water. She notes that the water itself does not
seem bad. Despite this, the quality of the surrounding vegetation
is still poor.
There is some sort of blight on this land, she says
We should collect samples, Albus remarks,
We should just get to the goddamn ship, and then to the cave
Mogar growls.
Lets get samples by the ship, Bor Ealis
Ok Albus
Well look for supplies, while you fuck off doing something
nobody cares about, Mogar adds.
As they discuss where the best place to get samples would
be, they hear a droning buzzing noise. Brrbrrrr. Bo Jingles, Orma
and Bor Ealis can tell that the drowning is coming from the right
of them, where the vegetation gets thicker. Mogar is looking to
the left and Albus is staring at some of the foliage wondering if he
should take a sample of them.
Bor Ealis makes frantic hand gestures towards the area.
Orma ignores him, because he is not the boss of them. What
does that mean, what are these gestures youre making right
now?, sarcastically Bo Jingles asks, are they telling us thats
where the fucking noise we all can hear is coming from
Weve been practising these, Bor Ealis says, adding. Im keeping
notes to let the sergeant know when we find him again.
The sergeants, unfortunately, fucking dead, Mogar says.
The party thinks back to the events prior to their landing in
the jungle. They were so freaked out they kind of had temporary
amnesia but what they remember now is that it was crazy. Once
the assault was about to start, a water spout jutted out of the
water and carried their ship up with it. Hurling it. The five of them
were clutching onto the balustrades and the maste. Most of the
people were hurled off as soon as the ship started tumbling. While
they were holding on, their officer of their platoon was a battle
mage names Grimaldy, he tried to save them, yelling I think I got
a plan, and just as he was saying that part of marst broke off and
impaled his leg. He screamed. Realising that he was not going to
make it he told them, i'm going to feather fall you guys and blast
you off the ship. Get to the city, find Kumion. He cast feather fall
and then thunder wave, pushing them off the ship. They did not
see what happened to him.
I'm taking notes for Maxamillion the 4th then Bor says
Are you actually making notes. On what Albus asks
Mental notes Bor Ealis says, tapping an index finger to his
temple.
Ok
They hear a buzzing, it is coming from off in the woods. Its
getting louder. The tiefling hides behind a tree, diving into the
pushes at the base of it. Orma boldly plunges forward in true
barbarian fashion. Bor Ealis follows behind her, using the half-orc
as a meat shield.
Albus, ignores the commotion being made by his fellow party
members, choosing instead to collect samples. He walks over to
the left of the game trail, away from the approaching noise, he
bends down and collects some of the blighted leaves from the
jungle floor.
Three creatures now appear out of the jungle, right nearby
the tree the tiefling had chosen to hide behind. The party sees the
creatures flying towards them on red batlike wings. Albus looks up
from gathering samples, and thinks to himself I wonder if they
speak deep.