The Wandering Archipelago (D&D 5e)

[spiderwrangler]

"Artho, would you like some of us take a look at that vial? Mehr is knowledge on the arcane, Kal on the divine, and Merric.. on the unusual. Where do your travels take you from here?"

[Nioca]

Finishing her communion with nature, Syli stirs and gently drops out of the tree. She briefly casts her eyes about for any sign of the other druid, wondering if he or she had simply left, or was simply waiting further away.

--Perception (+5): 8

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Today's Spell List:

► Show Spoiler

• Detect Magic
• Entangle
• Faerie Fire
• Healing Word
• Thunderwave

As you can see, Syli's list is a little more offensively oriented this time around.

[Arch Lich Burns]

(Does Mehriv get the message she sent?)

[thinkslogically]

((He hasn't yet, no))

[thinkslogically]

"Artho, would you like some of us take a look at that vial? Mehr is knowledge on the arcane, Kal on the divine, and Merric.. on the unusual. Where do your travels take you from here?"

"Please. And do take a sample if you think it will help you.

From here I intend to continue my efforts to the cause of all this unrest. Perhaps I shall try and reach the Bloodclaw camp again. If I am lucky I may be able to intercept another messenger or perhaps learn what they do with their captives. I fear it is nothing good or else I may have been willing to risk capture myself. I do not think I have enough information yet to take such a gamble, however short my captivity would almost certainly be", he says with a slight smile.

"What will you do?"

----------------------------------------------------------

Syli drops to the ground. There is no sign of the panther any more, but as she heads to the area where she last saw it she finds a scrap of hide pinned to the tree trunk with a sharpened piece of wood. It flutters gently in the morning breeze, and seems to have been marked.

[Nioca]

Syli carefully approaches and investigates the marked piece of hide.

[Rodgeir]

Varsk climbs out of the tree and, while watching out for gators, communes with nature the old fashioned way. When he is done he looks around and says to Gwen and Syli (who probably isn't too far away?),

"Now that we're all feelin' good and rested lemme fill ya in about what I learned from the woman that caused all the trouble yesterday. First off she is part of a group that is havin' problems with the lizardfolk. They've been takin' some of her group and are generally just bein' assholes. She said the lizard's camp was..." He will glance around a bit trying to figure out which way is which before continuing, "A bit east and north from where we ran into them. She also said they got it fortified."


He will pause a bit for questions and to let things sink in a bit,

"Not all the lizardfolk are a problem I guess. Some to the south are not involved but she didn't think they'd help. She said she'd talk to her boss, a fella named Trip, about maybe settin' up an arrangement to get us our kidnap victims." He will squint at the rising sun. "But if they were interested they were gonna send someone to the ruins last night. Don't suppose the others are at the ruins?"

He will then go about climbing back up the tree to eat breakfast from his pack and have a drink of water.

"Can you two get us back to the others? An' what the hell was that shiny bird thing last night? (Directed at Gwen) More demon shit?"

Once he is done munching he will climb up the tree a bit more to see what he can see and hear around them.

Perception: 16+4 = 20

((Updated everyone's health, so now everything is a nice shiny green.))

[Theis2]

If anyone let's Merric examine the vial of unknown fluids, he'll grunt knowingly as he opens the bottle and smells the content. Unless it smells super vile, he'll take a drop on his finger and taste it.

"Nope, nothing comes to mind."

Merric history: 1D20+3 = [3]+3 = 6

[Arch Lich Burns]

"That's troublesome. Hopefully they will help us in our endevours, the more that go with us the more likely we succeed. Of course I know my way back, I do not get lost easily. The bird was something Mehriv gave me so thst I can message him of our situation, hopefully it reached them and told them."

[Dlover]

((You say Mehr's knowledge is on the arcane, but he's only got +2. He's only average (10) on intelligence, with a little education on magic.))

Arcana check: 11
"It could be a reagent for a ritual of some sort?"

"Ah, we'll probably stay here a little longer. There are companions who have yet to turn up, but I have faith in their abilities. If we're forced to wait too long I suppose we'll start searching for the person we were asked to rescue."

[spiderwrangler]

((I was speaking more to the type of magic you world, more than your depth of understanding.))

[Rodgeir]

To Gwen,

"They ain't just gonna help us in our endeavors , especially if we use words like endeavor. When and if they find us we gotta tell our scaly boss to tone down the uppity. They weren't fond of the houses so we got to spin it that we are doing them a favor by killing off the lizardfolk for them so they can enjoy all of this in slightly more security." He gestures around with a hand.

He looks at Gwen for a second then glances at Syli,

"Ya know, it is probably better if he doesn't talk at all. How far away are the rest of the team? Are they at the ruins? If not it may not matter since they probably couldn't find us."

[thinkslogically]

Syli takes a look at the marked hide. Scrawled in druidic runes on the underside is a message that simply reads:

South -+- SW from Clearing -++- W from Pool -+- Help
((Between each word is a straight line that has been marked through vertically once, then twice, then once))

Varsk and Gwen discuss their options and start planning.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Merric opens the vial and smells it. It smells like iron and battery acid and he opts not to taste it. There is nothing particularly historic about it though.

Mehriv wonders whether this substance could be a reagent, and it certainly could be. Most things can in the right hands after all. He does get a faint magical sense from it though. It seems like it's some sort of naturally magical substance, like the magic is an integral part of it. It seems faded somehow though.

[Dlover]

On a spark of inspiration (which Burns supplied), Mehr has another idea, "Maybe it's a potion? I don't really know anything about medicine, though, and have never had need for one, so I wouldn't recognise it. If it is, though, then it feels like it has been diluted."

[Theis2]

"Might be the blood of a lesser fiend they have captured which they use as a catalyst to transform and empower themselves which is the reason for why some of them had weird unnatural scales? I'm sure Gwen would be willing to test it out."

[WearsHats]

Kal knows his stuff today.

Nature: 1D20+3 = [19]+3 = 22
Religion: 1D20+3 = [20]+3 = 23

[Nioca]

"Kal could do it," Syli says, taking and unpinning the hide and coming back to the group. "Assuming they don't get a visitor like we did last night, anyway. That panther, last night? Not actually a cat, in the much the same way I'm sometimes not actually a cat. And I think he or she left some directions to your friends as well." She looks at the marked hide again.

"...problem is, I can't tell if this is two sets of directions for both us and Mehriv, or if this is one set specifically for us. I think it's just for us... which means in order for it to make sense, we'd have to start from here and find our way around. Which means going back, finding Mehriv, coming back here... ugh..." Syli put a hand to her head to cradle the oncoming headache. "Or, wait, you gave Mehriv directions last night, right?" Syli turns to Gwen. "We could wait until they find us. Although... that requires them to come looking for us in the first place."

Syli sighs.

((And to compound that, something I just realized is that even if they got the message, Gwen gave them the wrong directions on top of it. ))

[Arch Lich Burns]

"I don't trust their survival skills to find us, it's better if we go back to Mehriv and come back here. Besides I told them to wait for 12 hours because I didn't know how fast the bird would take."

(Opps that's my bad, Gwen would have gave them the correct directions but I failed to )

[Nioca]

"Well in that case, let's get moving. Sooner we can get back to the others, the better." Syli replies. Assuming there's no disagreement, Syli let's Gwen take point on making their way back, assisting if necessary.

[Rodgeir]

"Lead on."

Varsk follows paying more attention to his surroundings

((I don't see that the 20 above for perception was used so I will just use it now, if that's okay Thinks?))

[WearsHats]

"Kal could do it," Syli says, taking and unpinning the hide and coming back to the group.

(Obviously, Kal isn't there to hear you. But I'm a little confused about what it is Syli thinks Kal can do.)

[Rodgeir]

► Show Spoiler

((I think she thinks he can negotiate with the woman's group since you aren't a city boy and are a local.)) Edit: nope

[Dlover]

"Might be the blood of a lesser fiend they have captured which they use as a catalyst to transform and empower themselves which is the reason for why some of them had weird unnatural scales? I'm sure Gwen would be willing to test it out."
"I don't see why you could possibly draw such a conclusion."

[spiderwrangler]

"Say, Artho... Do you know anything about black dragons in these parts?"

[Theis2]

Merric eagerly stays in the conversation besides Mehriv pointing out he's spewing crazy theories that have nothing to do with what they know now. Korrik however sparks the crazy theories that comes spewing out of Merric.

"I don't see why you could possibly draw such a conclusion."

"Well clearly something was off with the scaled ones and our night friend got it from someone transporting it to the other camps, potentially as a ritual ingredient or way to infect other tribes and force them to join them in their fiend worship."

"Say, Artho... Do you know anything about black dragons in these parts?"

"Ooohh, dragons are magic and bleed! It could be a dragon they are tapping blood from instead of a fiend! I guess some of the smell might come from it being diluted with the angry river.. They use the blood of a dragon to awaken their ancient draconic herritage! Making them bigger, stronger and magical! Maybe you should drink it Mehriv and fully realize your magical powers as you gain the magic strength of the dragons!"

Merric knowledge black dragons: 1D20+1 = [5]+1 = 6