Chapter 2

Ah. Smiles. What hit poor innocent Jim and how hard?

"Jim takes Shara place to guard her retreat."

Moving towards the ape attacking Undril Travers pushes himself, swings his sword twice and continues toward Jim and Pacan.

Jim holds his ground defensively against the two apes and now guards the mule from being attacked if he can.

Pacan takes a step back as the stone thumps her chest, knocking a measure of the wind out of her. A flicker of anger flits through her eyes and you see her once again shift into a brown bear. With a howl, she gnashes with tooth and claw at the nearest ape.

Ha'aroo shouts back out "WE'RE TRYING, BUT YOU ATTACKED!!!"

Ha'aroo cast Vicious Mockery on ape 1 and gives a bardic inspiration to Jim.

Undril casts the same spell again and seeing that Travers manage to finish ape next to her moves forward to protect Jim

1. Ha'aroo will talk to Nebula and Jim and see if they want me to talk to the animals and let them know that if something like that happens again for the mules to slowly walk to the person who is furthest away from the aggressors?

2. Then he will talk to the group and mention how they probably could have seen the apes if they went just a little bit slower and see what everyone thinks and if we should remain a quicker pace or not.

3. Ha'aroo also mentions to the group "I was thinking when we met that priest how I wanted to let you all know that I saw someone in the bushes but didnt want them to know we knew of their position. Do you think we should have a codeword or phrase to let our group know of something going on without announcing it? I was thinking of something like if we pretend something happened at a certain time and say it to the group all of us would know there is something suspicious and where it might be. Like if we say, "Do you guys want to have a chess game at 6 oclock tonight" and since we dont have a chess board we all know that there is someone sneaking up behind us. Or if we say something like "I cant wait to eat those T-Rex burgers at 3oclock for lunch later today." And since we dont have any TRex meat everyone would know that there is someone hiding to the right of us. What do you all think?"

Ha'aroo does his evening and morning ritual of ritual casting speak with animals and this time telling them how amazing they did with what had happened. How Nebula's mule did get scared but quickly calmed back down and stayed with Nebula. He will tell the mules to slowly head to the person who is furthest away from the danger if they become scared. (If Jim and Nebula agree). And then continue telling them how amazing they did and how brave they were. Then he will write in his journal before bed.

Shara is disappointed with how the ape encounter went. She wishes she could've done more to help her friends, but dares not voice this concern to the group.
Shara initially argues, but acquiesces when she realizes how out of depth the party is in this foreign jungle. "Our first thought should be to preserve ourselves with caution," she says. "How can we save countless others if we cannot save ourselves?""It would be wise, if we can agree on what to say. I have no doubt we will encounter many more intelligent enemies, with intelligent tactics."

Jim wasn't happy about getting nearly killed by the apes. And wonder why anyone would attack them with him hanging so close. That and he couldn't get Shara to pull the mule back. It was a dire mess. Jim was a bit red faced about the issue.

Jim suggests someone else can lead through the foliage a cutting. He is done with it and getting himself hanged. He will take the middle and pull the mule himself. He stabs the machete in the ground for whoever wishes to take it and lead.

Jim wasn't a happy camper that whole evening and probably better for Shara to sleep with Nebula as Shara was on a very lesser list with Jim. Jim stayed to himself that evening. He did however cast and put more water in the barrel after he topped off his waterskin and made sure everyone's elses was topped off too. We have 50# of water in the barrel now.

Jim smiles. Yeah his mule could us some Ha'aroo chatter. Jim doubts the need of a password. Doubts we will run into too many real people out here as well.

Nebula is happy to share the night with Shara. She lights up some more incense and sets it under a sheltered area while she packs up her stuff in the morning, ready to leave.

"Please" Nebula says to Ha'aroo. "Bruno is so stubborn, he dragged me halfway across the ground before I could stop him!"

After the fight with the apes Travers recovers his handaxe and moves with the others til camp.

Replying to Ha'aroo "I agree if we move slower then we may be able to avoid such conflict in the future, not too slow as we don't know how much time remains.." he goes quiet as the weight of their task washes over him again before continuing "A phrase may be useful even if it's obvious at least we can all be warned"

When they see the weather the next morning he remarks "I'm not much of a navigator and reckon I'd be even worse in this what does everyone else think?"