Zeeny had  been watching the water intently when the hushed words carried out from the ledge.



The words didn't even break through Zeeny's concentration.  The sound did though, like a cut bowstring, Zeeny-Deedle jerked in the direction of the noise.  As he did, he unconsciously drew one of the halves of his staff.  As he searched the ledge for the sea monster in his mind, he was shocked to see a human hand.

"Hey to the ledge.  Who's there?  Friend or foe?  My name's Zeeny."

He risks lifting his head up slightly to see the troupe, exposing only his eyes and the top of his head. "Friend I hope, although that depends on your disposition."

"Well, people often compliment me on my good sense of humor and timing, but the dwarf here, I've heard it said he has the tact of a camp mutt that got into the lard.  Our friendly gnome here isn't so bad though.  Now, if you are the lady's type of man, I would recommend our priest here.  She has enough personalities to keep any man busy and the only harm you will get from our scholar is the severe ear bending if you invite discussion about his favorite topics."

"Now that we have disposed ourselves, what are you doing here?  We were hoping to get out of these tunnels that way though I will admit, the thought that there is something in the water has me concerned.  What can you tell us?"

The dwarf was very surprised by the voice which had come floating over the water to them. It took a moment for the chills to pass down his spine from the least expected event. His eyes narrowed warily as his hand shifted toward the axe haft which was never out of reach.

Then Zeeny-Deedle spoke up and the stranger replied, and in the exchange Bodric realized that he was in real trouble now. "Not another one..." he groaned, thinking of the strange interactions he'd had with Sepulos and the tall Monk upon finding them in the caverns. Now another misfit had dropped in on them from the world above, and he and Zeeny seemed to be hitting it off already. Bodric sighed. If he hadn't just pressed his hands into the stone of that chamber just a few hours ago, he would consider throwing himself into the pool with the unseen water-beast and just get it over with!

"How far does yer ledge be leadin'?" Bodric spoke over the water. "Does it lead to an exit? If so, why came ye back this way? Are ye alone?"



"Bah! If ye call sittin' naked in a frigid waterfall until ye hallucinate, humor and timing... Zeebie here could be a High King's Jester!"

Zeeny-Deedle was making friends with the voice over the water, but his companions noticed now that he'd begun to get a little shaky. There were beads of sweat upon his brow and his eyes had grown wide. He was speaking coherently, but the normal enunciation was... off. He swayed a little as he spoke, too loudly.

He was nearing his moment of truth with the ghoul-tainted blood, inactive for a time, began coursing through his veins again... This was no laughing matter, and in truth, the timing couldn't be worse.

Bodric eyed him warily from the corner of his eye. It could happen fast, and if it did, well, the dwarf was prepared to do what he must.

OOC: Roll will be revealed soon! Muahahahahaha!

Agelia looks to the mage, or at least the source of his voice.  Then, in response to Zeeny-Deedle's statement, she says, "Not cuddly enough." Well...whether this remark is about herself, or the mage, is uncertain.  "And a little bitey." Ahh, she is referring to herself.  The young priestess points to herself.  "Agelia Redstart, of Taiiemnian."

Her words are, despite their content, spoken friendly enough.  With the same level of warmth, she turns to Zeeny-Deedle.  "Are you feeling alright?" Wait, is that concern in her voice?

"Actually, no.  I don't think the Deedle is well at all."  After making this declaration, Zeeny had the bizarre feeling of the Deedle sinking to the ground no longer responding to his commands.  And it was hot.  Too hot.

Alton sheaths his dagger and stands up showing his navy blue robes that are torn and soaked. It is made of fine wool with gold inlays. He has dark hair, and a short, dark goatee.

"The ledge doesn't lead far. I took refuge on it last night to stay above the rising tide. It looks like there is a landing yonder; we might be able to make for it. I don't know much about the sea creature other than it came after me last night, but I was able to hide up on the ledge." He doesn't answer the question about being alone. "Is everything alright with your friend there?"

Maksim snorted loudly before he caught himself. With a chuckle he turned to his old friend, "I swear, Bodric, no one heard about that from me!"

Looking across to the latest surprise this week, Maksim calls across to Alton, "I guess I'm the agreeable gnome. Maksim Munzuk, of the former town of Gilgamar. If you can get along your ledge as far as you can and we go as far along our side as we can hopefully our mutt can get the rope up to you."

Bodric gave his old friend a withering glare. He finished fetching his various pieces of rope and began to rapidly join them together by way of standard and efficient dwarven knots. His hands jerked in their movements, making it clear he was perturbed and only too eager to get out of these tunnels and away from this pack of lunatics.

"Quit yer yammerin' Munzuk and see if ye can't get this rope over to yer new buddy. If he can secure it on his side, we can climb across... If not, I'm throwin' ye in to distract that thing!" He grumbled a few colorful dwarven epithets cursing sea-life, humans and leaf-eaters generally.

"This rope be pretty heavy for yer arrow... think ye can get it there?" he asked the agreeable one.

Then he seemed to notice Zeeny-Deedle swaying near the water. He walked over to the tall man who had just slumped to his knees in the sand. Bodric grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and plunged his head into the water, holding it there for a moment before pulling him back up. "I ain't waitin' around to see if ye be turnin' ghoul on us! Fight fer air or go swimmin' with the fish!" He plunged the monk's head into the water again, holding it down. The look on his face was one of pain however. It was clear that he was hoping to get knocked backwards by whatever bit of mortality was fighting for survival within the monk. Dwarven methods weren't always the most gentle, but they often produced the quickest results...


OOC:
@Z-D: Remember a while back I said you had a 10% chance of becoming a ghoul in 24 hours? At that time I rolled a d100... here's that result:

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)


23:32, Fri 21 Feb: Secret Roll: The Usher, on behalf of Zeeny-Deedle, rolled 13 using 1d100 with rolls of 13. Save -vs- Ghoul Fever...

Soooo close! Welcome back to the land of the living! ;-)

---

The dizziness came on him in a sudden rush and he realized he was, once again, in the water.  There were voices, but he couldn't make out the words as the pounding in his ears pushed all thoughts out of his head.  He was able to hear Agelia and Maksim and finally something roughly struck him and started rumbling sounding, for all the world like:



Zeeny had no idea why Bodric would say such a thing.  Maybe the first part, but the second?  Then the visions started.  Flashes of light before his eyes with darkness and death.  Faster and faster the visions came.  And cold.  The visions were accompanied by the cold.  It was the cold of the grave.

By then Bodric was just holding the Deedle under the water.  Zeeny-Deedle had been resisting, but that was not really working so new tactics were needed.  The air in the tiny chamber was getting stuffy and Zeeny didn't know how much longer he could stay down.  He opened his eyes and looked into the water.  As with many ocean caverns, there were a lot of sea critters.  Just in front of his hand was an enormous crab threatening his intrusion on its domain as it rapidly tried to scurry away.

Zeeny-Deedle grabbed the crab which immediately started snapping its unnatural number of claws, 8 in this case, and, reaching behind himself, stuffed the crab into Bodric's crotch.  As the screaming started, he pulled himself forward and down using some of the rocks.  Bodric, apparently had other things to deal with because Zeeny-Deedle was instantly freed.  A few feet later he surfaced standing in the armpit deep water at the edge of the ledge before the water dropped off so deep Zeeny had not been able to see the bottom.

"What is wrong with you Bodric!  With friends like you I am not sure a guy needs enemies!"

Zeeny tried to be serious, but the wild hopping and groping of the dwarf trying to get the eight clawed crab off his privates was just too funny and soon he was laughing.  He didn't even realize that the fever was suddenly and completely gone.  He also didn't notice the food he had thrown out earlier disappearing in an anticlimactic ripple which collided with his own ripples not far out of his reach... or at least it would have been within reach if he had been able to swim even a single stroke.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:13, Tue 13 May 2014.

Alton gives a quick word in a long-dead language that even he barely understands, and gives a small wave of his hands. Under his command the crab stops pinching and immediately falls over dead.

He speaks to the two quarrelers in a deeper, stronger voice than before. "Enough! We need to focus on finding a way out of here, not squabbling like two crows over a fresh deer carcass."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 02:21, Wed 14 May 2014.

A look of relief crossed Bodric's face as the delirious monk began to struggle beneath the dwarf's gnarled hands. That look was quickly replaced by another look, this one much more intense. The dwarf howled as he released Zeeny-Deedle and pranced backwards trying to dislodge the addle-brained, zig-zag scarred, stick twirler's attempt to remain an air breather instead of a blood drinker.  Finally the crustacean dropped away and Bodric stomped it plenty of times with his wooden-soled dwarf boots. Those soles had swollen with all the water they'd been tromping through the last few days and had rubbed blisters on his feet. He ignored the pain and when he'd finished stomping the octo-crab to death he was about to place a well-aimed boot at Zeeny, only the dolt had decided to take a dip after all. Bodric cursed and grumbled about hoping the sea-creature chewed him some new scars.



"Eh?" Bodric asked, puzzled. "Ye ever seen someone ghoul-bit? Or been ghoul-bit yerself? He be havin' that look about'im! Fightin' fer air is somethin' we all do if we be wantin' to live. He needed to want to live..."

"Get ye outa there Zamey! That water ain't safe!"

"Maksim! Let's get this rope over to Sir Exploration Commander and be gettin' outa here... I be thinkin' I must be allergic to humans, they be makin' me want to gouge out me eyes and shove'em in me earholes!"

"Augh..." Agelia groans.  "Bodric, the crab could have told us where the others were, and we could have had crab tonight!" She has nothing better to contribute, and still seems to be somewhat "touched".

"But, I'll forgive you this time, because whatever you did seems to have cured him of the..." Agelia pauses.  "Ghoul...fever?" She blinks.  Half-to herself, she mumbles, "Claisant never had ghoul fever." Then, for reasons known only to herself, she appears to count on her fingers, and then shakes her head and frowns.

Alton gives a wry smile, "remind me to never see a dwarven medicine man."

Sepulos, watching the clownish antics of Bodric and the mad monk, was suddenly overcome with a black wave of melancholy. It all seemed so hopeless. What was the point? He sank down onto the cavern floor, completely exhausted, and near despair. He was usually able to keep his constitutional spleen within bounds, but recent events were simply too much for him, and when he got this way it was very difficult for him to even move. The new voice--whoever it belonged to--held little interest for him. Staring into the black water, he felt a tinge of tragic irony--they had come so far and even been given to glimpse a reflection of sunlight, only to be held up here. He couldn't see, realistically, how they could get across the cavern on this rope, and he frankly didn't think he had the courage anyway to overcome his childhood fear of hidden water monsters and make any sort of attempt short of flying (which was of course not likely under current circumstances). And even if they made it across, what then? The future had never seemed so dark and terrible to the scholar, whose life had up until now been largely based on a comfortable pattern subject to very little variation.

"Bodric," he said miserably, with his head between his hands. "Bodric, I appreciate all your help and guidance thus far. Really, I do. I don't think we could ever have gotten this far without you. But please be honest with me now. Are we getting out of here or not? Do you have any real ideas? If not, then I suppose I might as well go back down there and starve to death in the dark, or find another centipede nest to donate myself to. Or else find those wall shackles and take up the old ghoul's post. I'd rather do any of those things than be devoured by whatever is lurking down there." He shuddered visibly at this last thought.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:01, Tue 20 May 2014.

Agelia rolls her eyes.  She had some pretty wicked bruises, possibly bone bruises, she was cold, and she was torn between feeling really giddy, really irritable, and really hot.  Making matters worse, popular opinions about the fate of herself and her present company were not doing wonders for her morale.  "Oh, gods abo... Hrrrrgh!" Showing a remakrable lack of restraint, the priestess almost goes across the back of the scholar's head with her palm, but stops and instead throws her arms up and cries out at the last second.

"Enough!  I'm not asking you to internalise your despair forever, Sepulos, but long enough that we can make our way outside without us all having to carry your weight.  Then I will administer what healing I can to your spirits, including towards the hurt that I have just likely inflicted upon them.  Until then..." Agelia's look is one of pure rage, but then it washes over, she appears to swoon, catches herself, grins in a friendly enough manner, and continues as she was, watching the water with interest.

Not cuddly at all.

Bodric turned to face the scholar. He had just tried to drown the monk in an effort to save him, and now this? The dwarf stomped over on the wooden soles of his boots and stood before the miserable man. When Sepulos finally looked up, Bodric's open palm slapped very hard across the man's face. It was dwarven honesty in action...

"I'da punched ye, but I don't punch women, which is exactly what ye be soundin' like right now!" The dwarf snarled without looking at Agelia. He grabbed Sepulos by the front of his ill-fitting armor and slammed him into the wall. "Do I be havin' a plan? Do I be havin' ideas? By the FORGE, Man! Aye! Me plan be to live! Me idea be to scratch and crawl me way outa these caves, drizzlin' blood and draggin' me own guts if need be, until I be feelin' the sunlight on me face! I got kin to find out there. I got friends..." he shot Maksim a sidelong glance, knowing full well how and what the little gnome was feeling.

Bodric reached toward the man and grabbed him by the ear with an iron grip which threatened to tear the thing off, turning his face toward the reflected sunlight at the end of the cavern. "Ye see that? Ye see how close we be? Yer gonna give up now? Yer gonna quit with the end in sight? BAH! BAH I SAY TO THAT! Ye hear me? BAH! Ye can stay down here and rot if ye'd like, but go do it somewhere else! Yer woman-whinin' be makin' me beard ache... Now get up and go die, or make ready to cross that water!" Bodric's face was red with rage and his beard shook with intensity. He released Sepulos with a shove. He backed up a step and held his gnarled hands out to his sides. "Bah?" he demanded.

The grizzled dwarf could take no more as his rage began to wane. He turned away with a snort to hide the self-revulsion he suddenly felt for what he'd just done. Like forcing Zeeny to come up fighting to save him from the last of the ghoul-taint, Bodric had acted instinctively to shame and enrage the scholar enough to get him the courage he'd need to go on and to cross the water. He thought back to Korak in the wine cellar where he'd done something similar. Perhaps none in his party, excluding the leaf-eater, would like him very much, be he hoped they'd respect him.

Truth be known, the dwarf was as terrified of the water as the scholar was, only he'd realized that if he didn't hold it together, none of them would be leaving this cavern. Turning his back on the others, he looked to Maksim and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "Bah! What be ye waitin' for, an archery lesson?" Of all of them together, only Maksim knew what Bodric was trying to do, he'd seen him do it before. He'd even had the crotchety dwarf do it to him a time or two... Maksim understood the hurt and pain it caused Bodric to have to do something like that, but he also knew more about Bodric than the others.  Maksim had once had a very similar talk with the dwarf as had just happened with Sepulos, only on that occasion it had been Bodric feeling sorry for himself, stuck in the bottom of a bottle of spirits. Tough love, Maksim had called it. It had never been mentioned between the two of them since then. That had been almost three years ago...


OOC: I took a few liberties there with Sepulos and Maksim. Hope you don't mind... Maksim, I'm gonna have to move the story ahead in the next day or two if you aren't able to pop in. Thanks everyone!

Maksim was stuck in his tracks watching Bodric ride his rage. The dunking of the monk and the slapping of the scholar was a sort of coach-wreck that he chould not turn away from.

But that did snap him out of it. With a dismissing sneer, "Not form you, for sure!" the gnome took the rope and moved as far along their side as he could. Laying the rope out to avoid knots or kinks or other unfortunate things Maksim did his best to attack the end to one of his arrows. With a muttered curse the gnome pulled his bow back, shouted across to the newcomer, "Incoming!" and let the arrow fly.

---

OOC:
don't know what modifiers you'll add but
10:53, Today: Maksim Munzuk rolled 17 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 15. shooting a rope across the water..

Bodric's efficient dwarven knots kept the profile of the rope as thin as possible with the bits and pieces spliced together along its length. Maksim expertly cast his shot over the still seawater in the cavern. It would have been perfect, would have been, if not for the extra weight of the rope from being soaked. As Alton hid himself behind a rock to avoid any accidental impaling, he watched as the arrow slowed and landed a bit short, a few feet from the ledge he was on. In a rush he lunged forward to clutch at it before it sank into the depths. It was almost out of reach, the buoyant whip-wood from which Maksim liked to make his arrows being slowly brought down by the weight of the rope. His fingers closed just around the sharp arrowhead.

He heard a throaty laugh from the other side, likely the dwarf, as he hauled on the line. The sleeve of his robes, which had almost dried out, was now saturated again, sagging heavily.

From across the water he heard the dwarf call out, "Sog-arm eh?" This was followed by another laugh.

Alton pushed himself upward and was about to extract his soggy arm and the rope when he saw something below the surface which utterly surprised him... Just beyond where he'd reached to fetch the arrow and rope was the familiar white shaft of his Master's magical staff! His throat constricted as he realized it must have washed in here during the storm. The fact that it was all the way in here and conveniently found, escaped him at the moment as his excitement of finding the lost artifact pushed logic to the back of his mind.

On the other side of the cavern, Bodric congratulated Maksim on a well placed shot, his previous emotion quickly ebbing away as the practical nature of his race now kicked in. With the little gnome's help, they began to rig their side.

Agelia kept a vigil over the water as Zeeny waded back toward the shoreline.

The surface of the water rippled a bit from Alton's grab, but otherwise remained still.

"Tie it off high," Bodric instructed the mage across the water. He seemed to have calmed down greatly and walked Alton through step by step on how to rig his end. When he was satisfied he placed a gnarled hand on Maksim's shoulder. "All right then, get ye across. But don't do it like that time in the old Horseshoe Mine... When ye get across, check Alton's rigging and then ye and he need to support the rope as each of the rest of us be crossin'..."

OOC: If everyone would like to narrate their crossing that's fine. Please make a DEX or STR check, whichever is higher. Sepulos, you'll need to make a WIS check as well. You may take anywhere from a -2 to a +2 depending on your reaction to Bodric's "Pep talk"...

I realize this is a long weekend, but my goal is to end this chapter by the end of the month. I'll be traveling next weekend, so if you could all post by Thursday, that would be great. If not, I totally understand and I can finish it up by next week.

Have a good one gang!

No narration for me!

08:25, Mon 26 May 2014: Agelia Redstart rolled 18 using 1d20 ((18)).

Nope, no narration.  This is the equivalent of "The Fellowship reaches the Bridge." in the scripts from The Fellowship of the Ring.

When the plan became clear to Zeeny he started objecting.  He kept his demeanor ...mostly, but even the untrained eye could have easily identified the motivation for the sudden burst of energy Zeeny-Deedle invested into thoroughly exploring the area looking for any alternative to the rope.  When it was finally his turn he turned to Bodric, "Bodric, I don't think I can do this.  I ended up in in these caves from a situation not unlike this one.  I am glad I have had the opportunity to get to know you, but I am a little worried there may not be a friendly over-stuffed dwarf the next level of caves down."

The dwarf gave him a bit of a snarl and without a word pushed him into the water toward the rope.  Zeeny held on to the rope for a moment, maybe even a minute but it didn't do him any good.  He was heavy, he pulled the rope down with his weight, and he couldn't get his head above water.  Releasing the rope, he thrashed a bit and managed to get one more gulp of air before his wet robes started dragging him down.


OOC:  01:44, Tue 27 May 2014: Zeeny-Deedle failed (no successes) using 1d20 with the Target Number system with a target of 6 ((3)).

While Sepulos was rather offended by Agelia's reaction to his words, he was utterly flabbergasted by Bodric's. However, in hindsight, he realized that what Bodric did was completely in keeping with his character. In fact, as soon as the words had exited from the scholar's lips, he'd felt ashamed of himself, although it was too late to prevent the dwarf's quite reasonable ire. At any rate, he sat there looking utterly ridiculous, like a spanked child, as Bodric scolded. Finally, by the time Bodric had finished, he had shaken off his despair, his indignation, and his humiliation, and as the dwarf stomped away, the scholar stood up ready to cross the water.


23:55, Today: Sepulos rolled 15 using 1d20 with rolls of 15. wisdom.

23:54, Today: Sepulos rolled 2 using 1d20 with rolls of 2. Dexterity.

23:54, Today: Sepulos rolled 20 using 1d20 with rolls of 20. Strength.

OOC: Usher, I'm not exactly sure I understand how the crossing is supposed to work. It seems--based on the Zeeny's little excursion--that we're meant to use the rope as a sort of "monkey-bar", but that while we do this, our body will be in the water. Is that correct?