Nico hears Vladimir, but he continues scanning the trees.
As Balter continues, he passes an entryway which has been blocked off with rubble.
As you come near the pool of standing water, one of you steps makes a slight mud-splorsh sound. You hear a new grunt coming from the other side of the wall to your right... nothing definitive that you've been detected, but it's possible.
Nico continues, "We saw something that made us suspicious, and sent a scout ahead. Much like we're doing now."
Balter slows down, moving more cautiously now that he is closer to the building. He travels along the stone wall, exploring the perimeter of the western structure.
Still listening to Nico's story while watching for Balter, Vladimir asks, "I trust everything went well?"
Nico's attention returns to the stone structure in the distance. "We were so focused on watching for our scout that we, uh, never looked up. A giant mantis dropped right on top of us."
Vladimir chuckles and says with a smile, "That explains why you keep looking up."
"Clearly a formative learning experience in your adventuring career."
"A giant mantis?" Durielle whispers looking back at Nico incredulously. "That sounds rather dangerous."
"That is putting it mildly," he says, though it's not clear if he's responding to Vlad, Marisol, Durielle, or all three.
You sense there's still more to his story.
Feeling rather daring today, Balter creeps closer to the entryway and peers in, looking for the source of the sound.
"People are predictable. See something suspicious or dangerous? We stop at a safe distance," he explains. "Thing is, our 'safe distance' tends to be the same, whether you're human, elf, dwarf, halfling..." He smiles, then adds, "Uh...maybe not gnome."
Vladimir quietly laughs at the gnome comment. "They do tend to be rather...adventurous, with out a doubt."
Balter quietly mouths an expletive before retreating, heading back in the direction of the others.
"The band of thieves we were following knew about the mantis nest, and, uh, guessed which direction we'd come in from. They placed a fake campsite a 'safe distance' away from it. Used it as a trap,Nico says. He grins sheepishly. "We never did find them, but we found two more 'trapped' campsites. Never saw or heard from them again, either."
An impressed expression crosses the swordsman's face. "I can not say that I approve of their line of work, but I do give those particular bandits full marks for ingenuity."
"Were there similar surprises waiting for you at the other false campsites"
"Spiders at the second, though we had learned our lesson. We didn't see anything at the third, but that could have been timing." Nico shrugs. "Most bandits aren't very clever. Or successful. There are exceptions, of course, but these folks...something tells me we are lucky we didn't find them."
Balter returns.
You neither see nor hear anything new so he seems to have avoided detection.
Vladimir looks to the ranger expectantly, "Anything of note?"
"A very big frog in that building over there. Tusks, purplish-white, covered in slime," Balter reports in a droll voice. "Does that ring a bell? Dunno whether it's friendly - didn't exactly get close enough to ask."
Nico says, quietly, "That ... does not sound familiar. I don't have a extensive experience, granted, but, uh, the intersection of 'friendly' and 'covered in slime' is not very large."
Vladimir raises an eyebrow.
"A big, purple, slim-covered, tusked frog?" Vladimir rhetorically asks.
"Sounds like something out of a nightmare to me. Perhaps we should deal with it so that no one is harmed should they stumble across that thing."
Balter shrugs. "Might as well drop the pleasantries then. We walk up to it, and if it attacks us, we kill it, yeah?"
"Sounds like a reasonable course of action." Vladimir says. With a gesture in the direction Balter has just come from, he adds, "Lead the way."
You head between the buildings - the path Balter had taken. As you come within a dozen feet or so of the southeast corner of the western structure, you hear a grunt, thud, puddle splash, then incomprehensible muttering coming from just south of the eastern structure.
"Unless your frog-creature talks, it would seem it has company." Vladimir comments.
Glancing over at Balter, the swordsman adds, "Although what you described was anything but a normal frog, so I suppose it could be making those noises too."
Durielle whispers a prayer for everyone and includes Arliss and the horses as well. She nocks an arrow and readies her bow to draw as the hunt for Balter's mutant frog begins.
"Is it a language? Anyone recognize it?"
None of you recognize the language. The larger rocks appear to have been moved.. you see indentations around each of them matching the size and shape of each rock.
You see the water in front of you is spotted with clumps of algae, and appears to be no more than six or eight inches deep. You also start to smell the now familiar scent of the Skunk River.
Nico tenses up at the sound. Seeing everyone hesitate, he reflexively turns his head to look behind them.
With another shrug, Balter nonchalantly walks up to the entryway he investigated earlier, not bothering with stealth this time. He does not draw his weapons just yet, though as always, they are close at hand. Stepping into the threshold of the western structure, he addresses the strange frog creature in a loud, clear voice.
"Hey, sorry to interrupt your nap, but we were just passing through and couldn't help but to notice that someone was nearby. Would you mind giving us some directions?"
The creature springs up to its feet, and cocks its head. It makes a loud gurgling croak sound in response.
You then hear another voice, and another creature approaches from south of the eastern structure... this time a biped with toad-like head and bulging eyes. It glances between the buildings, sees you all, and speaks - mostly incoherent words with a rushed delivery...
"Ung gok no no Ubagub slurk! No no wog woggy Garuum truce boggard!"
"What in the Nine Hells is that thing?" Vladimir asks.
Thinking a moment on the garbled words coming out the bipedal frogs mouth, he asks, "Did I hear the word truce, or was that just a coincidence?" while regarding the creature carefully.
Nico moves to the corner of the structure and peers around it, spotting the small, frog-like creature. Assuming it's what alarmed Vladimir, he says "That, good Vladimir, is a boggard. They generally kill people for sport."
"Mmm gurrip Boggard.. me." He holds a morningstar in one hand - with the head down to the ground, and with the other he points to one structure then the other. "Me. Me garuum, gop slurk.. ubagub."
After a moment... "You.. truce gop go. No die.. no die."
Marisol's lips turn down and her brows rise in an expression of some surprise. "This is unexpected. Nico, do you happen to have a spell that will help with the language barrier?"
Nico eyes the boggard warily and says, "I, uh, did say 'generally'. I have a spell that will let me understand ... him? Her? But, um, that's as much as it does."
"One side of a conversation is better than none...at least then we know the creature's intentions." Vladimir says, still studying the boggard.
Apparently I did a crappy job at scouting, Balter thinks with a frown, when the boggard shows itself. Picking up on the snippets of Common within its gobbledygook, he pieces thing together.
"Hm. Two ugly frog monsters, and two stone buildings," the ranger remarks, glancing toward the other structure.
Durielle places her arrow back in its quiver and approaches the boggard, handing her bow to Balter as she passes him.
She raises her hands to show they are empty then lifts one to tap her head then point at the boggard's toady noggin.
"This will not hurt you," the oracle announces slowly without any certainty the boggard understands. She begins to speak words calling into the mists of time to present her with alternate moments allowing her insight into what the humanoid is thinking. She raises her other hand palm up as if offering it to him(?) and uses it as the starting point for the area she can visualize.
The white and slimy tusked frog creature moves up to Balter, and sniffs his boots.
As Durielle interacts with the boggard from a distance, he leans forward and looks at her curiously.
"Durr truce?"
He doesn't seem to react with too much suspicion.
Nico fiddles with his ring, pulls a pinch of ash and salt from his pouch, gestures with his other hand and then speaks the words to a spell.
He takes a step forward and says, "Yes, truce. Can you understand us?"
The boggard looks to Nico "Mmm truce...."
His expression quickly changes.. more concerned as he takes a half-step back. He speaks words Nico now understands..
"Felt a tingle in my head. Was that magic?" and after a few seconds "Bad magic?"
Durielle senses a void where thoughts should be... he must have resisted.
Nico answers, "Um, good magic. So we can talk to each other."
He turns to face Vladimir and says, quietly, "Uh...I am not a great spokesperson. But I can translate what he says, and I think he's asking for a truce. It's not clear how much he understands what we're saying though."