The stone walkway you stand on now merely leads inside the hollowed-out head of the tall robed man statue. You see some benches inside the statue as well as openings - it looks like a place of meditation, or at least it was formerly. Now it looks like a privy for a whole island's worth of birds. The stench is awful.
Opposite you the walkway leads directly to a door. You see Olivius kneeling next to the door, examining it for traps. After a moment, he stands and gives you the all-clear signal.
Hawke would scrunch his nose up at the smell. It was horrible, but from the looks of things, they had found where the harpies had decided to nest.
Upon seeing Olivius give the all clear, Hawke would move up to the door while rearming himself with his axe once more.
"Shall we?" he would ask simply.
Browns, greys, creams the pattern of colors covers Sinathel's skin before they start taking on the appearance of feathers on her skin. Soon it's not just an appearance of feathers, it's actual feathers as her clothes and equipment change to match the coloration pattern followed by turning into feathers as well. The feathers on her arms extend, and her fingers transform into feathers to become wings. Her eyebrows lengthen to become 'horns' made of feathers and her eyes become round. As the feathers in her hair disappear into the shape she's taking, her feet transform into taloned ones and a feathers lengthen to form a tail. For just a moment, she looks like an bird-person, but this does not last long. Her body shrinks and shifts, and where once an Elf stood, now a Great Horned Owl with vibrant green eyes exists. She gives a slow blink at those looking her way.
With a flap of her wings, Sinathel takes silent flight. Heading up to the listen in on the shouting conversation, though she aims to stay out of sight. Best not to be spotted yet.
As Hawke and Olivius stand by the main entrance, Sinathel wings past them. The only sign to mark her passage was the wind through your hair, pushed by her wing-flaps - she doesn't make a sound.
Sinathel, you feel the instincts of your owl form urging you to find prey. You hear the faint squeaking of some kind of vermin somewhat off the path, and your stomach rumbles in your owl belly.
Pushing down the instincts with difficulty, you focus on your task and fly higher. Silently, you fly above the outer wall of the monastery. From your birds-eye view, you can see that the high exterior wall surrounds what looks like a courtyard of some kind. On the floor below, you see numerous cloistered hedgerows that look well-maintained, if a little overgrown. As they should be, you can't help but think to yourself. Those plants should grow as they will, not according to the whims of the monks here. The catwalks surround the courtyard on the second floor, allowing for comfortable viewing of the hedges.
More worrying, though, is the monk. At your angle, all you can see is a small part of him, but you can see that he's hurrying along the upper catwalks, still carrying your spear and shouting "My lady! My lady! We're being attacked!" He races along the upper floor passage and darts behind a heavy wooden door.
You can also see two harpies. They roost on the handrails of the upper catwalk, and watch the monk running past with bemused, tired-looking expressions. They haven't noticed you, nor do they seem overly concerned by the monk's shouted warnings. In fact, they tuck their faces under their wings and appear to be taking naps. The injured monk doesn't even look their way as he races through the door deeper into the monastery.
Olivius draws his rapier and nods his readiness at Hawke.
Dambreth takes a moment to make sure that Scram has not been harmed. Looking at the rope, he then gestures for Scram to go hide and rest back in the vegetation that borders the grounds of the monastery.
Dambreth quickly scrambles up the rope and joins the others as they move forward, keeping his bow ready to fire.
As the rest of the group joins them, Hawke will open the door and start forward with Olivius, ready to step in front of the smaller man should danger arise.
Hawke, assuming you take the lead, you slowly open the door. It was shut hastily by the monk who was running and didn't latch properly. It opens silently, and you see that it opens onto a catwalk-style pathway that circles around a large square courtyard on the other side of the main door. Two harpies are half-asleep on the far end of the catwalk, occasionally stretching. The ugly half-woman half-bird creatures are wearing small necklaces with minor gems that rest between their exposed breasts. They appear completely unperterbed and unaware of you. What do you do?
Dambreth recoils a bit in disgust when he sees the Harpies. Those can't be natural creatures...some perversion of nature must have been done to breed that race.
"Hawke, I can take one out with a headshot from here."
I strike better when Unseen. If they are drawn in here, where I can ambush them, it would be to our advantage.
"It would be nice to shorten the distance between us and them before you take your shot. Do you think you could still take one from here if they become aware of our approach?"
"Although, Olivius might be right. We'll have a better chance of dealing with them if we can manage to lure them into a situation where they can not take advantage of their wings to get away from us."
Sinathel, not one to let her prey get away that easily, circled around to the monastery, listening and watching for signs of that spear-stealing-civilization-loving monk, peeking into windows or any other opening to the inside if she had an opportunity.
"Sinathel can land on the roof behind them and change into a tiger...if I can shoot one, she can jump on the other one and hinder it long enough for you to get to it," Dambreth suggests.
Sinathel, you fly around to the side of the monastery and peer inside. The only windows are thin horizontal rectangles very high up from the floor on the interior, so you don't have a great angle. However, you see towering bookshelves that nearly touch the ceiling inside, lined wall to wall with books of every description. By the time you reach the window and look inside, the monk is just slamming the far door and leaving the library. Further on, the monastery is too large for you to approximate where he went.
"Hmm...that might work. Does anyone have something shiney? I wouldn't mind having something on my person to draw their attention should things go bad."
Having seen all she can about where he went, Sinthal heads back to the others.
"Hmm...that might work. Does anyone have something shiney? I wouldn't mind having something on my person to draw their attention should things go bad."
"Not since my jeweled bag that holds my lucky rocks disappeared," Dambreth says while giving Olivius a suspicious look.
Olivius returns the implied suspicions with his most innocent face, seeming almost hurt by the implication.
He draws his slightly bent, yet still shiney, polished throwing knife and holds it up. Think this'll work?
Hawke would take the knife and hold it up to the light so that he could watch how the light plays off it. "This might do the trick. Unfortunately I'll not be able to use my axe while holding onto it, but luckily enough our friends outside provided me with a new tool."
Hawke would hand the knife back to Olivius for a moment so that he could slip the steel knuckles onto one hand before taking the knife back in his free hand.
"Well I'm ready whenever you all are."
Olivius takes his position next to the door and says Let me know how many are coming. I'd hate to shank the first and this warn the second.
So is Olivius going in first, followed by Dambreth and Hawke, or what?
Gotcha. Let me know how you intend to get their attention - their faces are mostly in their wings as they nap.
Sinathel - your sharp owl hearing picks up what sounds like a large flock of birds all screeching together in the distance, further up the mountain. It seems the monk delivered his message...
Hawke will step further back into the opening to help hide himself from view as he pulls a gold coin from his pouch. Without a moments hesitation he flicks it out onto the cat walk in hopes that the sound will draw the gaze of the harpies which will in turn get them looking in the proper direction to see what happens next. The coin in motion, he'll move the dagger in a fashion to make it flash in the light.
The sunlight reflecting off of Hawke's dagger can be visibly seen on the face of one of the napping harpies. The harpy blinks and shakes her head from side to side, but clearly Hawke was very skilled at annoying his classmates as a child, because the reflected beam of light remains trained right on her eye. It's finally held on her long enough to wake her fully. She screeches, and out of pure irritable spitefulness, she whacks her sister harpy with her wing.
This sets off the sister harpy, who was merely trying to enjoy a lazy afternoon in their conquered castle. Having numerous other problems in what constituted her personal life already, this uncalled-for wing boff was the straw that broke her back.
The harpies leap into the air together, both squawking and slashing at each other with their feet as they take to the skies, higher and higher. Their attention is wholly absorbed in bickering, like sisters do.
While the turn of events amused Hawke, he was not happy with them. He had hoped to bring the harpies in close so that they could dispose of them. Quietly he would cut his gold pouch from his side while turning to the others and whispering, "Be ready." Next, he would toss the remainder of his gold down hard onto the catwalk to not only cause a racket, but in hopes of creating a glittering display.
Nice try - but even the harpies' superior hearing is useless when their attention is so focused on one another. They're screaming taunts and insults and "I hate you"s at each other. They don't pay any mind to the sound of coins hitting the catwalk.
Hawke would step out into the opening and shout up at the harpies. "While I enjoy a cat fight as much as the next guy, neither of you ladies are all that grand to look upon."
The harpies abruptly stop fighting at turn to look down at Hawke together. Their catfight forgotten, they smile evil smiles at each other, before turning their attention back earthward.
"A MAN!" one coos, then cackles to herself abruptly.
"Hush, Agatha," the other shushes. She smiles. "Why don't we get him to come closer to us? Come to us, hot stuff." Both of them are cackling now, and they beckon to you.
Hawke, you feel an intrusion in your mind! Your body suddenly seizes up, and you feel your limbs acting out of your control! Dambreth, you notice Hawke begin to climb up onto the catwalk walkway, what do you do?
Memories of Hawke's wife would suddenly flood his mind and push back the unnatural hold the harpies had placed upon him giving Hawke the power to stop his advance.
With a wicked smile he would turn his attention once more to the harpies and say, "[b]That is an unfortunate manner in which to treat a guest that has brought you gifts. As he speaks, he'll motion to the gold coins scattered across the cat walk with his hand.
The harpies look disconcerted and worried when Hawke regains control of his own body, with such apparent ease. The first harpy mutters, "Agatha, notify the Queen," and Agatha makes to fly off toward the rest of the Monastery. What do you do?
Olivius stands in the shadows, and gapes at Hawke. The man must have a death wish!
Olivius keeps his rapier drawn, but transitions it to his off hand and draws one of his good daggers.
Time for Plan B: Make it up.
He signals Dambreth to shoot the far one and steps out from behind the door, sending the knife spinning and glittering ahead of him at the nearer of the Harpies then kneels, clearing the shot for Dambreth. Dambreth should be able to take care of the fleeing harpy, in theory.
Olivius' throwing knife rotates end over end through the air as he whips it at the harpy. With a satsifying sound the dagger buries itself in the harpy's shoulder and sticks there. The harpy shrieks in rage, but good sense (and a healthy amount of cowardice inherent to the breed) prevent her from diving the catwalk alone into so many enemies.
The foul woman-bird hybrid glares at Olivius. "None of you have any manners! You should teach each other some!" she declares. Olivius feels the intrusion into his mind this time, commanding him to strike Hawke! What do you do?
Feeling a dagger sail by, Hawke will launch the dagger he has in his hand at the harpie getting ready to fly off and alert the others.
Make your choice:
Roll defy danger (strength) to leap from the handrail to the harpy, risking an attack from your mind-controlled teammate. Olivius may resist the mental command, he may not - but at the moment, he has glowing flecks of color in his eyes and he's advancing on you.
Roll defy danger (choice, depending on the action) to deal with Olivius.
Hawke, still having a debt to repay to his comrade has no intention of fighting him in fear that he would kill the man. Instead, he will run and leap from the catwalk in an attempt to grapple the harpie.
Sinathel takes the opportunity provided to attack the harpie attempting to get away, striking her at the back of her neck with her sharp owl talons as she would strike a mouse that was her prey. She digs her talons deep, intent on doing as much damage as possible and distracting the Harpy from heading to warn anyone more than the spear-stealing-harpy-controlled-monk has already done.