Eilyne was angry that her attack missed again, it was becoming a pattern it deemed, and took a deep breath at the worst possible time. Just as she was going to send another blast of thorns at the creature it moved forward and she inhaled a huge amount of a terrible odor that left her feeling terribly ill. She moved back and gasped, "Oh my god, don't you ever bathe?!" Then tried to send another blast of thorns out and was surprised when her strike hit it's mark.
Mia takes a step back and tries to get a better shot, unfortunately, her aim is horrible.
Griffo's eyes water a bit at the stench, but he still loads up another bullet and lets it fly.
"Minto, *cough* get the stinker."
Minto resists the urge to rub up against the troglodyte to pick up the reek, and attacks. This time, his attack is rewarded as he gets some purchase on the troglodyte.
Griffo batters the troglodyte with another sling bullet as Minto moves in to bite at its leg. The reptilian humanoid hisses in pain and shakes the wolf off of it.
Surma slashes sidewise, gutting the wounded trog and dropping it to the ground.
Mia shoots at the remaining troglodyte, but her aim is off. Eilyne fares better, blasting it with a thorn.
Wounded and with its allies down, the trog takes a guarded step back. Eyes wide, it reaches into a pouch, pulling out a small feather token. The troglodyte throws it into the air, where it transforms into a small raven. The bird begins flying away, heading east.
"S##+!" Surma lets out as she steps up to the troglodyte.
Seeing the bird appear from the creature's hand, and realizing it likely is going for help, Eilyne growls out, "Oh no you don't." She knew the odds were against her but she took a chance, holding a seed ready and drawing in power which she used to strengthen the power of the thorn and then sent it flying at the bird, hoping that it would hit. Unfortunately the tree limbs got in her way and the thorn slammed into a nearby branch rather than reaching her target.
Mia, realizing what the raven meant, sent an arrow after it and began readying another.
Griffo loads another sling bullet and hurls it at the raven, smashing it and causing it to waver unsteadily in the air. Minto bites the troglodyte, tearing at its scaly flesh.
Surma swings at the trog, but it manages to dodge her axe.
Eilyne tries to blast the raven, but her aim is off. Fortunately, Mia shoots true, her arrow impaling the bird and dropping it from the sky.
The troglodyte attacks Surma in a desperate fury!
"Augh, die, dammit!" Surma growls as she swings.
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The troglodyte is kind enough to comply with Surma's request as her axe takes its head clean off of its shoulders. The decapitated body falls, twitching spasmodically.
"Ugh" she grumbles, the stench still assaulting her sensitive nose. "They have another of those bird things on them, did one of you get the one they set loose?' she asks her friends.
"Griffo and I did."
"Nice." she lets out before moving over to give the Lynx a calming pat on the head.
With the lizards dead Eilyne was relieved, though still nauseous, and asked, "What were those foul smelling things?"
"Alive."
Mia shrugs.
You share a few more one-word and nonverbal replies before the rest of your band of refugees catches up to the battle site. Aubrin squints as she steps into the clearing, but once she gets a good whiff of the troglodytes, she gags and coughs. "Ugh, what an incredible smell you've discovered!"
Once she gets close enough to see the dead creatures with her damaged eyesight, she frowns. "I think those are troglodytes. My memory's a little hazy, but I think there was a troglodyte tribe called the Children of Stone that often harassed—and feasted upon—Chernasardo Rangers in the area during my time with them. As if we didn't have enough to worry about with the Ironfangs."
She pauses a moment. "Hmm. I think they lived in a big cave east of here. If we could clear it out, it would make a great place to hole up on a long-term basis."
Surma nods to Aubrin. "And it will preemptively make the Rangers like us, too."
Surma begins looking around. "They tried to send the bird... thatta way, didn't they?"
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"Honey, wait a sec," Aubrin says. "For Cayden's sake, it looks like they beat you half to death! You need a stiff drink, or, in lieu of that, some tender ministrations from yours truly."
The cleric chants a spell then gently lays her hands on Surma to heal her wounds.
"Oh, right..." Surma lets out, admonished.
Blushing when Aubrin touches her with her healing she cups her hand over the cleric's and pulls her in for a kiss afterwards. "Thank you, my Sweet. I'd never turn down either from you."
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Aubrin kisses back, her hand wandering down to grab at Surma's butt. "Nothing like the stench of dead troglodytes to set the mood, eh?" she says with a wink.
"Heh, I had forgotten all about them when you showed up." Surma coos, letting out a surprised smirk when Aubrin started to get handsy. Gently putting her hands on the Cleric's waist she hungrily whispers. "If you keep this up we won't be able to go raid the lizard den any time soon."
"'Raid the lizard den'? Is that some sort of new euphemism?" Aubrin laughs.
Surma's eyes drift upward in thought. "I don't... think so?"
Distracted, her thoughts realign on a completely different kind of puss. "Oh, by the way, we have another survivor."
Turning to the Lynx Surma calls for her to come over.
"Aw, what a cutie! Come here, girl." Aubrin holds out her hand to the lynx and whistles softly. The big cat sniffs experimentally, then sits on her haunches and stares at the cleric with an expression that indicates she couldn't be any more unimpressed.
"Hmm. Maybe she'll warm up to me later."
"Yeah, when we found her she was guarding her friend's house. Unfortunately he had turned into an Undead some time ago." she tells Aubrin before turnign to the Lynx. "It's okay little one, Aubrin is really nice."
The lynx looks from Surma to Aubrin. Eventually, she reaches out her head to sniff at Aubrin's hand again, then rubs her head against it. The cleric scratches the cat behind the ears.
"There we go. Shame about her friend, but we'll take good care of her now."
Surma smiles when the Lynx lets Aubrin touch her. "That's good. Didn't find anything that said what her name might be but we'll come up with something I guess."
"Given a bit of time, I could prepare some magic that would let me speak with her, if you'd like. We've just been so hard pressed that I haven't had the time to think of doing so. I'll keep my mind on it for when we find a safer haven," Griffo suggests.
Griffo pulls out the hobgoblin scouting documents and pours over them to see if they had spotted the troglodyte cave.
The location of the caves are marked on the map, about 12 miles east of your current location.
"We'd appreciate it." Surma tells Griffo.
"If you want to head towards the caves now, we should send some scouts to the Chernarsardo Rangers' redoubt. They can try to make contact and report back to us," Aubrin says.
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Deciding to check out the rangers' redoubt first, you continue on your original path. The rest of the day is uneventful, and you sleep through the night. In the morning, Aubrin gives Surma a kiss and wishes you luck as you prepare to contact the Chernasardo Rangers.
"Cayden guide your steps, friends. Oh, and if you see a ranger named Tomasz, tell him I said, 'These aren't my pants!' He'll know what it means!" She laughs at what is presumably an inside joke.
You travel south through the woods for most of the day, emerging briefly into the sunlight before plunging back into the shadows of a swampy gully. It is mid-afternoon by the time you reach your destination.
The forest grows thick here, trees pressed close together with their branches intertwined. A gloom hangs in the air. Foliage around the base of the trees is sparse, stunted by lack of sunlight. The songs of birds and noises of small animals have ceased, adding to the eerie atmosphere of the ancient woods.
This eerie gully contains a number of standing pools and dead trees, all swarming with insects. The redoubt is a large tree house built above the depressing terrain, protected from most predators by the muddy water below. A worn path leads to the building, a short wooden footbridge crossing a muddy stream.
Surma smiles, then smirks after the kiss. "Okay, we'll tell em."
Once they reach the redoubt she pauses. "I don't want to sneak up on someone with twitchy fingers, but then if the hobbs or lizards already got them..." she trails off before shrugging. "Hang back a bit."
She then crouches and lurks off towards the treehouse, keeping an eye out for traps or ambushes.
The pathway is trapped, but not in the way Surma had expected. The perceptive skinwalker spots the nearly invisible spiderweb that is strung across the trail just before the bridge.
Soft scuttling noises brings the sword devil's attention up to the trees, where she sees bulbous shapes moving among the branches. She sounds the alarm as two spiders the size of men spin down towards you! Further away, a hideous purple creature clambers among the branches. It walks upright like a man, but its face is that of a spider, and its hands are sickle-shaped claws.
The spiders quickly converge on Surma, biting at her with their mandibles and injecting her with poison!
The purple monster chitters with laughter as it leaps down to flank Surma with a spider. "Oh, yes, yes, yes! New friends for All-Eyes to play with!" It sinks its fangs into Surma's side!