Chapter 21: The Razor's Edge

[Jeff]

I am unclear what's happening next. Is Shorak leading the group on, with him and Adamant at the lead as before? Or is he scouting and the group is waiting? To be clear, I've only got that Shorak intends to scout ahead occasionally, but I need to know explicitly when that is.

Thus I need to wait another day to find out for this instance.

Would be really good to iron stuff like this out.

[Darren]

Yes, the entire party is moving to the waterfall behind Shorak.

[Jeff]

Shorak leads the party on. In the back, Melethos and Thul see the crested reptile emerge fully from the shadows of its lair. But it does not leave the beach. It merely watches the party go further away.

And Shorak walks, looking every which way he can, he sees the path north is easily navigable. Most trails in the jungles of Xen'drik are not this clear. The rocky wall looms ever to the left, while the land gradually rises toward the waterfall, and the waters of the cover are ever on the right.

Those large glidewings seen wheeling around the waterfall earlier you all spot in greater numbers this way. Some have even perched on the rocks, which seem stacked higher in this direction. A couple continue to circle over the waters, but others have landed and now look down on you. Each one looks large enough to lift a full-grown man off his feet. Starg and Adamant might be too heavy, but it hasn't been put to the test. The glidewings grunt and hoot. The pitch of their cries is hard to ignore, and the sound carries far.

Just as Shorak steps foot between two palm trees, a new denizen off this cover reveals itself. A huge, only vaguely birdlike beast rises from around the rock forty feet northeast. It is at least twenty feet high, thin but large, but intimidating. A beak the length of Starg dominates its head, and it moves like an agile lizard. Its feathers are various shades of blue. It has wings, but looks to be as at home in the water as on land or air. Shorak immediately senses a territorial warning. It makes a growling, almost honking noise. The glidewings in the area respond with their own cries. It looks ready to spring forward to the attack.

None of you, not even Shorak, has seen such a beast before.

Looking ahead, Shorak and Adamant can see that the path winds into a narrow little canyon that'll soon be swallowed up in the waterfall spray. More alarming, the ground before the rocks is littered with bones, many of them clearly humanoid. Some look still-damp and reddened, others so old that the grass has sprung up and half-swallowed them already. He can also see evidence that at least one or two of the glidewings has been slain here as well.

In the rear of the group, Melethos sees the dark-feathered griffon (which moments before had been a mere shape in the air) alight upon the outthrust rock that hangs near the beach. It has a rider, and appears to be surveying the land now. Melethos is pretty sure its aware of his party.

The bird-reptile is something like a arambourgiania, certainly in size.

[Brian]

Melethos stares at the griffon and its rider. The creature's presence here suggests the tiefling ship must be near the beach.

He pauses a moment to see if the rider makes any sort of gesture of welcome or warning.

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From that distance, can Melethos make out if the rider is human, tiefling, or some other humanoid?

[Joe]

"Well," Streko grumbles, "don't we appear to be popular! Forward or back? And then there is also up to be worried about."

[Jeff]

"Well, up is where we're trying to get," Sem whispers back to Streko. He actually reaches out and places two hands around Streko's arm, as if the little folks need to stick together. Those glidewings could pick them up easily...

Melethos eyes the griffon's rider, somewhere between two and three hundred feet away now. Hard to say. An armored figure, that's for sure. He think it might be a tiefling, yes.

[Dave W.]

“Well, unless we have a way to teleport up, the only way I see is forward.” Adamant says, “We knew there would be dangers…”

[Dave B.]

Shorak holds up his hand to stop everyone. "Okay, looks like we have multiple threats ahead. I guess we should risk the single threat of the lizard." He calls behind him and waves for the party to head back, not taking his eyes off the giant bird-like creature.

[Brian]

EDIT

Hearing Shorak's instructions, Melethos switches out his javelin for his sword, turns, and starts back toward the beach. "Okay, everyone, follow us. Be prepared for a fight. That lizard isn't going to just let us walk by." He keeps his attention divided between the griffon and its rider and the lizard. Of the two, the lizard worries him more.

"Looks like we're not going to advance without a fight," he says to Captain Thul. "How is your hand, by the way? Any aftereffects from it being crystal?"

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The party will move back to the beach in reverse marching order.

[Jeff]

"I can fight," Thul responds as if that's all that needs to be said.

The crested lizard in the sand has now spotted the griffon on the rock above it. It certainly looks wary. The griffon rider continues watching, making no gestures.

When he reaches the top of that rocky path that leads either back down to the beach or continues directly to the south toward the misty possible cave, which way he is going? And is the intent to main reverse order?

Edit: Okay, got the answer. I'll wait for any other reactions.

[Joe]

"Gods above and below! Will there never be an easy path for us to follow, without some blood being spilt? Shorak, before you lead us back, I have a thought. Is it possible that illusions are set in place to keep up from going forward and turn us back? Could someone perhaps see if magic is our enemy here, before we retreat to fight again? Remember, the enemies ahead of us will attempt to slow us down or stop us entirely. Those footprints we saw doubling back just seemed so obvious. I would like to make sure."

[Dave B.]

"Everyone stop!" Shorak calls. "Streko makes a good point. I'm pretty sure the glidewings are real, since we've been seeing them fly around for days now. But, if we discover that the giant bird thing isn't an illusion, maybe we can be the ones making the illusions. Sem? Do you think you could create an illusion to get us past the lizard? I think it would be easier to fool the one creature than the half-dozen or so by the waterfall." He looks towards Kal. "What do you think, Kal? It would be great if we could slip into the cave without a fight, if possible." Shorak adds.

[Dave W.]

“Back is also a direction… “ Adamant sayswhen Melethos calls to reverse direction…

Then Streko and Shorak call a stop, “standing still is technically not a directinon.” Adamant says, He looks to Melethos.

[Darren]

"We can't keep wandering back and forth and we can't turn back at every denizen of the jungle. The way is forward." Kal steps up next to Adamant and waves his hand towards the bird creatures. Loud cracks of thunder boom out, crashing noises of prey moving through the jungle follow. Kal watches to see what reaction, if any, there are from the animals.

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Kal will use Minor Illusion to make loud noises including thunder and animals moving through brush that originate as far in front of him as the spell will allow.

I've also rolled a Nature check to see if Kal would know if loud noises might scare away creatures like this (e.g. I don't know a TON about bears, but I know that if I were to see one in the wild, making lots of loud noises is supposed to scare them away). Roll is a 12.

[Jeff]

Jul 5, 2021 18:57:23 GMT -4 Dave B. said:

"Sem? Do you think you could create an illusion to get us past the lizard? 

"I can try," Sem says, "but in my experience illusions fool people better than animals. It's the smell, you see, though I do have one spell that can provide that, too. If you—"

And then Kal steps closer toward Shorak's position and casts his minor spell. A mixture of ambiguous animals sounds and thunder cracks emit from thirty feet ahead of him (the range of the spell). As the magic can only sound as loud as a person screaming, the thunder sounds like thunder but doesn't carry and echo across the region nearly as strong as real thunder would.

Nevertheless, the beasts react. The glidewings in the air wheel away momentarily. The glidewings on the rocks just tilt their heads around like a confused dog hearing an unusual sound. The huge bird-like beast actually surges all the out of the water and onto land, its head looming even higher now. It looks more aggressive at the sound. It emits its weird honking cry and then opens and snaps shut its big beak. It, too, appears more puzzled by the sounds than scared away.

When you guys say "cave" I want to make sure I know which one you mean. Since coming to the beach, you've seen two: the lower one on the beach where the big lizard has since emerged and another one, "higher up, [where] the rocky terrain hints at another dark patch—a second, larger cave". It's in that second cave direction where most of the footprints appear to go, which is not back down on the beach. To help, I've once again added approximate elevations to the map. If you're unsure about anything the map isn't conveying clearly, please do ask.

[Ken]

"Enough of these birds," says Belarin. He pulls out his newly acquired candle-wand, points it at one of the perched glidewings, and - in a very low voice - does his best impression of a predatory, cat-like growl. He repeats the process on two more of the creatures on the rocks.

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Belarin uses his wand of whispers to cast message on three of the glidewings and will impersonate a predator. Charisma (Deception) check, if appropriate, with advantage because of the Actor feat: Rolled 1d20(8) + 12 = 20 both times.

[Brian]

A loud noise draws Melethos's attention. It came from further up, past Shorak. He notices the large bird react, look startled.

He motions for Thul to stop, then to Kal, he thinks: What's going on? I thought I heard something.

[Darren]

Jul 6, 2021 19:20:38 GMT -4 Brian said:

A loud noise draws Melethos's attention. It came from further up, past Shorak. He notices the large bird react, look startled.

He motions for Thul to stop, then to Kal, he thinks: What's going on? I thought I heard something.

There's some predators on the path ahead. I'm trying to scare them off. We can't keep doubling back.

[Dave B.]

Okay. My bad. I totally missed the fact that the tracks led to the higher cave.

"You're right Kal." Shorak says. "Let me take another look at those tracks." Shorak follows the bootprints carefully, back a bit and then up towards the higher cave, not back to the cave on the beach. "Wait. Let's take this path that leads up to that higher cave. We don't need to deal with the flying threats or the lizard. Of course, there still might be dangers laying in wait at that other cave, but I think this is the correct path." Shorak then motions for Adamant to join him and leads the party towards the cave higher up and away from the more obvious threats.

[Jeff]

Belarin's messages do appear to spook the two chosen glidewings. Each one in turn louts out a cry and stirs from its perch, then takes to the air. They don't so much flee the vicinity as move to circle around above the water—where perhaps growling feline creatures do not typically go.

Shorak turns and leads the party back, but stays on the well-trodden, many-tracked ground, deigning not to go down to the beach. Thul just stands still until everyone moves past so he and Melethos and the skeleton can follow. "We are afraid of fighting," he mutters to the tiefling.

The fog grows thinner as the party moves up the incline of the path toward what does appear to be a larger cave mouth. Stones of all sizes and shapes, some standing like nature-carved standing stones quite apart from the rock wall, present themselves along the west side of the path. Nearby, still standing at the top of the rise but out-thrust over the water, is the griffon and its rider. Now, one hundred fifty feet away or so from it, you can see the rider has a bow in hand and some sort of large weapon strapped to its back. From its girth, you assume its male. And it is indeed a tiefling—he has dark red skin. Left hand grasps the bow. Right hand is empty, but it gauntleted. He raises it once, like an acknowledgment of your presence more than a friendly wave. Watching you.

Beyond the griffon and ride, the tiefling longship is closer. No more than fifteen minutes out.

Shorak studied what he can through the mist. He feels like something is watching, something with greater intelligence than the glidewings. Something other than the griffon rider. He can't place it.

Histra says as quietly as she can without her voice being lost in the distant roar of the waterfall, "Should I send the tauth down the stair?"

Sem and Starg are wide-eyed, studying the rock wall as you walk by it as if looking for a secret door, something other than the obvious cave.

The bones of the great reptile, one that would be at least as larger as the big beaked thing, lies before the cave mouth. Tracks are all over the place, humanoid boots and numerous clawed toes as well.

[Brian]

Jul 6, 2021 21:46:26 GMT -4 Jeff said:

Shorak turns and leads the party back, but stays on the well-trodden, many-tracked ground, deigning not to go down to the beach. Thul just stands still until everyone moves past so he and Melethos and the skeleton can follow. "We are afraid of fighting," he mutters to the tiefling.

Melethos stares at Thul. "Afraid to fight? Have you travelled with us for weeks and learned nothing?" The lines of his face turn grim. "Tell me, Captain. You're a soldier. Have you assessed the situation? Do you know all of the possible foes we face? No, you don't. To engage in a fight without knowing how many enemies you face is reckless. I understand your problem-solving often stops at Thul break, but I've never taken you for stupid."

As the party moves forward, Melethos follows. "No one is forcing you to stay with us, Captain. If you don't like how we work, you can go off and finish your mission on your own."

[Darren]

Kal looks up ahead, then over his shoulder towards the beach and the approaching tieflings. He moves up close to Shorak so he can lower his voice. "You must decide Shorak. This is what Larest brought you here for. The waterfall or the cave, it doesn't matter, but we must move. We can scare those things away, if need be, and rid ourselves of those that don't run. We don't know where either path goes..." Placing a comforting hand on Shorak's shoulder, Kal moves back to his position, then calls to Histra, "Yes, send the tauth down. Let's see if we can get some clarity on how to get to the stairs in the first place. Quickly, if you please."

[Jeff]

Thul keeps his eyes on the griffon and the path ahead, the Hammer of Syndra now in his hand. "You want a conversation right now?" he says, his voice going quieter than Melethos's. "I just want them to make up their damned minds."

Histra glances at Thul, then nods at Kal. She reaches out to Belarin's arm, closes her eyes, and focuses on her out-of-sight undead servant. "This may take a moment, unless the path is very clear."

Attachments:

[Brian]

Jul 7, 2021 8:52:40 GMT -4 Jeff said:

Thul keeps his eyes on the griffon and the path ahead, the Hammer of Syndra now in his hand. "You want a conversation right now?" he says, his voice going quieter than Melethos's. "I just want them to make up their damned minds."

"I didn't ask for a response," Melethos returns, an edge to his voice. "I made a statement. If you want to turn it into a conversation, that rests on you. And yes, I wish they'd make up their minds."

[Ken]

Belarin protectively guides Histra in whatever direction Shorak dictates. "I'll keep scaring the glidewings off if they come back this way," he says to Kal, keeping the candlestick-wand at the ready.

[Dave W.]

Adamant stays with Shorak as the changeling moves forward. "I know I am making a lot of noise," he says above the drumming of the waterfall, "but I would rather you not go off by yourself. There will be a time for stealth later."

[Joe]

Streko moves up the line quietly and touches Shorak's shoulder. A soft, orange glow seeps into the scout's body and suddenly, he feels more alert.
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Streko will cast Guidance on Shorak. Shorak can roll a d4 and add the number rolled as a bonus to one ability check of his choice. He may choose to roll the die before or after rolling the ability check.

[Darren]

Jul 7, 2021 10:18:07 GMT -4 Ken said:

Belarin protectively guides Histra in whatever direction Shorak dictates. "I'll keep scaring the glidewings off if they come back this way," he says to Kal, keeping the candlestick-wand at the ready.

Kal nods at Belarin, then wiggles his fingers in the warlock's direction. Belarin hears a low growling in his ear like the one he sent to the glidewings. Kal grins at the other man's reaction.

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Kal has Message, too.

[Jeff]

Histra goes still, and her faces screws up in disappointment. Her eyes open, and they are normal again. "The tauth has been destroyed," she says matter-of-factly. It stopped somewhere . . . this way." She points toward the cliff wall an vaguely upward. "There is a guardian or trap of some sort that snared it. I think a creature."

[Dave B.]

Hearing Histra, Shorak stops 15 feet before the entrance to the cave, "Okay, that doesn't sound good. Adamant, wait here and let me take a look at the opening before we try to enter." Shorak moves quietly towards the entrance and carefully examines the floor just before the opening and the stone of the entrance to the cave.