Grumbling Bear sees the spike coming his way and tries to twist out of the way.  He succeeds in that he isn't impaled by it, but it still draws a line of blood across his torso.  Pain flares in his mind and he clenches his teeth to keep himself from losing focus.  That blow had hurt him.  A lot.  But now he was all the more determined to keep the beasts attention on him.  He wasn't sure how well the others could handle such a blow as that as well as him.  And so, despite the pain, he forces himself to press the attack despite the natural inclination to shy away from such massive hurts.

21:17, Today: Grumbling Bear rolled 12,26,8 using d20+6,d20+6,d20+6.  Grumbling Bear Full Attack.
21:20, Today: Grumbling Bear rolled 8 using 1d20+6.  Crit Confirm.
21:18, Today: Grumbling Bear rolled 7,5,6 using d6+3,d4+3,d4+3.  Grumbling Bear Full Attack Damage.
21:18, Today: Grumbling Bear rolled 11,20,18 using d20+6,d20+6,d20+6.  Baloo Full Attack.
21:18, Today: Grumbling Bear rolled 10,6,8 using d8+4,d6+4,d6+4.  Baloo Full Attack Damage.

Ikshana rushes forward with her long spear, but the creature sees her coming and swings its right arm at her. Its deadly spiked thumb stabs her in her shoulder. Blood gushes out.

The nagaji finishes her approach; her spear glances of the dinosaur's scales.

Grumbling Bear and Baloo snap at the beast. Their claws strike home. The dinosaur seems to be slowing down.

Irezagab hurls his javelin with unerring accuracy. The beast is bleeding from multiple wounds.

The dinosaur lashes out at those in front of it. The magic of Irezagab's spell causes the creature to miss Grumbling Bear.

Its other claw-spike buries itself in Ikshana's chest and she falls!

Darkwater digs in with his claws and teeth and strikes home at an artery in the dinosaur's leg. It collapses, bleeding out.

OOC: Combat over. Ikshana dead.

 As the creature roars and topples, Darkwater leaps further up its body, clawing his way to the base of its throat to worry at it - until he catches sight of Ikshana and leaps towards her instead, scrabbling for the healers kit that he left in the hands of her chief and keening in dismay when he recalls the exchange of medicine for a gift he still has not unrolled or so much as examined closely.

"Noooo!" shouts Irezagab as he sees the Ikshana take a massive blow to the chest.  He felt guilty over his ridiculous pride in making a successful javelin throw.  I should be doing my job, keeping the warriors alive, not pretending to be one myself.  He channels healing energy over the entire group, carefully excluding the dinosaur, but he can tell that it is already too late for the nagaji.

He runs up to her and desperately casts a cure spell on he dead body.  He is startled to find that it is already cool to the touch, and he nearly botches the spell.  Fool!  She is not a warm-blooded creature.  Tears in his eyes, he turns to Grumbling Bear and casts a cure spell on him.  Seeing that his wound is not completely closed, he channels energy to the group once again before breaking down in sobs.  "I couldn't help her.  She was already gone.  I should have ..."

04:44, Today: Irezagab rolled 8 using 2d6+1.  Channel energy.
04:56, Today: Irezagab rolled 7,6,8 using 2d8+4,d8+4,2d6+1.  wasted CMW, CLW, Channel.
Heal a total of 22 points on Grumbling Bear.  16 of that is on everybody, so we're all feeling healthy.

Try as he might, Grumbling Bear couldn't keep the dinosaur's attention on him the whole time.  Ikshana, seeking to creating an opening to exploit, accidentally made one for the dinosaur.  The spiked thumb punctured her chest and as Ikshana fell Grumbling Bear watched the light go out in her eyes.  She was dead before she hit the ground.  Healing magic, too late for the nagaji, fills the area and the pain in his chest fades some.  The other two Seekers move towards Ikshana, not noticing that she is beyond their help already.

Grumbling Bear finishes the beast off to end its suffering before returning to the group to receive the rest of Irezagab's healing.  His wound would not even leave a scar now.  He watches as Irezagab sobs over Ikshana's body and Baloo idles nearby.  Baloo's interest had vanished after he sniffed her body and confirmed she was dead.  Grumbling Bear was of a similar mind.  Death was a natural part of things.  But that wasn't a kind mindset so he decides to say nothing.  Instead, he places what he hopes is a comforting hand on Irezagab's shoulder.

As silence falls in the small clearing, barely audible, again, the bronze long-knife keens. It definitely gets louder each time Darkwater approaches the ancient, vine-draped tree.

Searching around for a place to lay Ikshana to rest in the ground--though Darkwater knows whether this is the correct custom--the Seekers discover half-hidden behind a crooked tree toward the edge of the clearing: three brown, head-sized eggs.

All of Ikshana's belongings appear to be of only personal value, with the exception of the coiled rope of vine hanging from her belt.

Upon further inspection of the dead dinosaur (particularly her mouth), she is indeed revealed to be a herbivore, which leaves enough meat to feed a village.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:28, Wed 05 May 2021.

 Darkwater is drenched in blood, but it takes only a moment to realise that none of it is his... Slowly, he uses a hand to set her in a dignified posture upon the ground and then takes her blanket for a covering, using it to hide her sightless, unblinking eyes from the heavens before issuing a low keening call and hissing a brief, ancestral benediction in what sounds like the tongue of her people.

 "Her kind were born of the spirit-serpents of water, and to water she will be returned." he hisses after a few moments, before looking spitefully up at the dead beast and emitting a low, angry snarl "Plant-eater. They can be dangerous, but it is rare for one to grow so enraged without display. I would know who has killed our companion."

Irezagab puts his own small hand over Grumbling Bear's huge, to let the druid know that his comfort is appreciated.  Finally, his emotions spent, the shaman hears Darkwater's blade keening again and stands up to investigate.  He starts by casting Detect Magic on the vine-draped tree which seems to be the trigger.

Very cautiously, he moves forward towards the tree and examines it, trying to ascertain whether the vines and the tree are parts of the same plant or two separate plants growing together, perhaps in symbiosis or perhaps as a parasite and host.  He tries to draw on his experience with similar plants to work out the relationship, but he doesn't have any particular insight.  Pointing out the interesting features he notices to Grumbling Bear, he asks whether the druid has any thoughts.  Finally, armed with their best guesses, he steps barely close enough to touch the vine, and he communes with it, first, and then with the tree, prepared all the while to make a hasty retreat if the vine turns out to be aggressive.

01:05, Today: Irezagab rolled 11 using 1d20+9.  K Nature.  Ugh.  I should have taken a 10.

With his detect magic spell, Irezagab sees a bright glow emanate, but it's coming from something beneath the vines.

As to the tree itself, all that the shaman is able to determine is that it is ancient, huge in girth and slow-growing.

His communion with the vine feels like he is awakening something that has long slept.

Slowly parting the vines, the Seekers see a rectangle of sun-metal set into the side of the old tree, about seven feet high and four feet wide.

Etched into the center of the metal is the image of a woman sitting cross-legged. Her two hands are stretched out to either side. Her right hand holds what looks like a stylized star, emphasized with white gems inset into the metal. Above her left hand is what looks like a fire, portrayed with deep red gems. Underneath her run several rows of pictographs that are indecipherable, except that they look like the ones etched onto the metal pillar the Seekers have already encountered.

The high-pitch humming sound in the area now seems to pulse back between the sword Darkwater carries and this newly discovered object.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:19, Thu 06 May 2021.

Elisaros had traveled for nearly a week. All she knew is that whatever she was searching for was beyond the furthest edge of what her tribe new. In this case, that meant crossing the lands of the halflings. Her tribe had an effective truce with them, and Elisaros had tried to communicate her non-hostile intent.

Not to their faces of course, but to the trees and shadows where they were surely hiding. Even now, she suspected a group followed her, but there had been no whooshing sounds of their darts.

She was pretty sure she was nearly through the area the halflings claimed when, of a morning, she heard the loud, enraged snarl of a huge animal several hundred yards away from her in the direction she was going.

What sounds like some sort of fighting ended quite soon, only to be followed minutes later by what sounds like a humanoid keening inarticulately before resolving into a not-quite-human voice declaring something in an unknown language.

Grumbling Bear waits patiently.  Grief cannot be rushed and there were no pressing matters at hand that would necessitate delaying its outpouring.  Vengeance, on the other hand, was a different story.  It was stone blade, honed slowly over time.  The longer one honed that particular blade, however, the more likely it was  that the crafter would cut themself on a blade meant for someone else.  Grumbling Bear wasn't going to stop Darkwater from working on his blade of vengeance but he would remain close to make sure Darkwater did not end up being the one hurt on that blade.

When Irezagab had no more tears to shed they both turn their attention to the strange tree nearby.  The tree and vines both felt familiar to him somehow.  Similar and yet different from trees he knew from back home.  He used that knowledge as well as Irezagabs insights to present his own conjectures as to the nature of the tree and the vines surrounding it all.

06:14, Today: Grumbling Bear rolled 28 using 1d20+9.  Grumbling Bear Knowledge Nature.

"I do not know why the nagiji said that these trees are 'malicious.'  This vine, at least, just seems sleepy -- only just waking up."  The shaman waits a couple of minutes communing with the vine, to see it if wakes up any more.  Then he invokes his ability again to speak with the tree itself while Skrou flits around his head and chatters nonsensically.

09:36, Today: Irezagab rolled 26 using 1d20+13.  Perception to hear Elisaros approach
This message was last edited by the player at 13:23, Fri 07 May 2021.

Approaching the area carefully, going from tree to tree is the sorcerer. Her eyes narrow from beneath her hooded visage, hands clenched upon her spear. After a moment, she lowers her hand to her dino friend. It looks up at her and then its body slowly shifts and glows slightly before becoming one with her arm. Slowly, she moves around. She watches each of them, eyes narrowed. Lizardman. Human. And a big bear. A very big bear. Elisaros seems hesitant about approaching. Very odd seeing three of them together, all different tribes perhaps. Very odd.

heck I don't even see me hah!
10:59, Today: Elisaros rolled 35 using 1d20+16.  Stealth.

11:07, Today: Elisaros rolled 21 using 1d20+10.  Perception.

And then from near the eggs, something speaks as Eli steps out from behind the tree. She kneels down, looking at the eggs then stands back up. Her hood hides her face "Protecter." She keeps the odd bone spear towards the group "Probably has a mate." For a moment she looks at the eggs then back to the group "Who are you?" The woman lowers her hood revealing a timid looking human. She seems to have a strange look towards her. Those eyes seem lost. Perhaps blind but its hard to tell. Her long hair is tucked down behind her. Her arms are covered for now and she has a odd red colored tattoo across her face.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:11, Fri 07 May 2021.

 It's difficult to determine just how and why the sun-stone blade on Darkwater's back is thrumming since it's not been drawn or pointed at anything, but a process of elimination can help narrow things down - especially once the spell is cast - since the hunter is moving from respectfully arranging Ikshana's body and advancing on the corpse, studying its mouth and throat and then drawing the sun-stone blade to cut into its stomach, looking to see if it has consumed something which could explain its mad frenzy.

 ---

22:58, Today: Darkwater rolled 24 using 1d20+7.  Knowledge (Nature).

Grumbling Bear instinctively bristles with the appearance of someone new.  Twice in a handful of minutes something had appeared out of the underbrush to confront them.  This one didn't seem to be innately hostile, though, so he settles back to let the more friendly of his allies handle the talking portion.

The woman was small, but that was in no way indicative of her strength.  She was clearly an able hunter as it seemed none of the Seekers had noticed her approach.  Still she didn't carry herself like a warrior so Grumbling Bear would speculate she either relied more on agility in combat or was perhaps a spellcaster of some sort.

Darkwater seems intent on investigating the dinosaur which means that Irezagab would be handling the talking.  Unless, of course, there was a language barrier in which case he imagined it would be a collaborative effort between the two of them.  Either way, it was probably best if Grumbling Bear just keeps an eye on their surroundings.  A third surprise would just be embarrassing for the Seekers.

21:00, Today: Grumbling Bear rolled 13 using 1d20+10.  Grumbling Bear Perception.  ((God dammit.))
This message was last edited by the player at 04:00, Fri 07 May 2021.

Irezagab jumps in surprise.  He planned to look in to the eggs as soon as he had concluded that the plants were not a threat.  Looking in the wrong place!  He turns to the stranger.  She does not seem hostile, but if she is here to protect those eggs, then that could change in an instant.  There's no need to assume the worst, though.  "Welcome, stranger.  If you come in peace and friendship, we are very happy to meet you in that same spirit."

Perhaps they didn't understand her or maybe they don't care. Either way, it was either a male or female protecting their young and it seems they stumbled upon it. And killed it without mercy-of course she wasn't there. She keeps the spear out, watching the lizardfolk examine the creature and perform some sort of autopsy. Strange for a lizardfolk to do it but there has to be a reason....

"Male or female." Of course she doesn't expect an answer but she can hope for one. Eli just keeps protecting the eggs. A balance. But as she looks around, she sees something odd. Her eyes narrow and she steps forwards. Her hand goes to the odd metal statue, tracing it. It looks like her but not her and she backs away. Another trick? Perhaps they followed -her-? No, probably not.

The woman sits down near the eggs, hands on her spear and if anyone approaches, the spear gets stuck towards them-she doesn't know them but something odd is going on. Course something odd always happens in her life.

"Left them without their mother or father. It is not good." She doesn't seem like a druid but hard to tell what she is. Her eyes lock upon the shaman "Peace and spirit?" Her eyes dart to the dead dinosaur "Why did it attack besides getting close to its eggs? Get close, lashes out." For a moment she is trying to read each of them but doesn't get far. Bear. Lizard. Human. Definatly odd "Elisaros"

The tattooed stranger looks quizzically at Irezagab, and he returns her stare.

"Male or female," she says, not quite a question, and Irez is even more confused. Whom is she asking about, I wonder.  Maybe the huge lizard?  But she seems to be protecting those eggs, which I thought were the dinosaur's.  This stranger is more than I comprehend.

Before he can even formulate a reply, she continues, "Left them without their mother or father. It is not good."  Then she speculates that these ARE the dinosaur eggs, after all.  Perhaps her appearance near the eggs was just a coincidence after all.  She does seem to move with that stealthy gait that the best scouts have.  After a longer pause in which the shaman still can't seem to work out what to say, she introduces herself, "Elisaros."

Finally, a bit of conversation that I can understand.  "I am Irezagab, a shaman of The People.  My friends are Grumbling Bear and his companion Baloo, and Darkwater.  We are Seekers, looking to learn what surrounds our lands and to make friends and trading partners."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:17, Mon 10 May 2021.

"Seperate tribes working together. Odd." The tattooed woman tilts her head "What are these...Seekers? What do you seek? Answers?" Eli seems curious, glancing at the lizardfolk and bear then back to Irezagab "I seek answers." It seems it is hard for her to figure it out "Grumbling Bear, Baloo, Darkwater....traveling through the Little Ones lair." She seems hesitant for a moment but something about Irez intrigues her. The sorcerers moves towards the odd metallic icon "Seeker?" She points her spear at it.

 Darkwater looks up from the messy work of examining the body - and butchering it of course, because it would be ill-done to slay such a creature and not share of its meat and strength - and quirks his head a little at the gibber-gabber the mush-mouthed humans are offering back and forth, his crest giving a fastidious flick but otherwise remaining down, since although he can mostly make himself understood, he doesn't actually speak the language.

 Mostly, he keeps working, harvesting the corpse while looking to see if there was any other reason for its rage.

"We seek ..." Irezagab trails off, realizing that the answer wasn't as clear cut as he had thought it was.  "We seek answers, true, or just knowledge.  We wish to learn of the other beings in the world, to make friends, trading partners."  He turns towards the lizardfolk, "Darkwater, here, is our guide, the keeper of the map.  You might call him our leader, if we were to have one.  Perhaps he can give you a more satisfactory answer, but he does not speak human.  I will be glad to translate."

Irez catches Darkwater up on what has already been said, and then he translates anything that the two have to say to each other.

"Leader that no one understands?" The woman watches the human, no emotion. Her eyes go back to the odd metal area and she traces the picture. For a moment she is silent but she turns back to the man "Why?" Simple and to the point. Eli just seems interested  is all, but finds it odd to come across a odd band.

Irezagab smiles at her provinciality.  After all, was it not only a week ago that the shaman himself learned how much larger a city could be than anything he had imagined before?  And his own tribe calls itself simply 'The People,' a term he had never even thought to question until two months ago.  "He speaks very well, in his own language and in others, just not in human speech.  Fortunately, both Grumbling Bear and myself had already learned his language before we all met, and it has not been a problem until now."  He quickly translates both the question and his response into the Lizard tongue for Darkwater.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:35, Mon 10 May 2021.

 Looking up from where he's using the sun-stone blade to work over the enormous cadaver of the downed beast, Darkwater issues a short, chirping trill of amusement and uses his free hand to gesture to his mouth (well, jaws) and conveys - with a really quite surprising degree of facility at simple sound-and-gesture communication - that the mushy sounds of human speech do not come naturally to him, but that he understands something of what is being said, if it is done slowly.

 After that he asks four times - in sibilant Nagaji and barking Gnollish, resonant Grippli and crooned Vanarian - "Can you understand me?"

The sorcerer looks at Ire then towards the lizardfolk. Her eyes narrow and she gets all types of grunts from him. Her eyes leave the others and she stares at the odd metal glyph, not sure if he is even talking to her. Her eyes close for a moment and then open. Staring contects at the glyph. She then turns from it, holding the spear "Where you heading?"