Sandru yawns, stretching his arms out as he sizzles some sausages and potatoes in a cast-iron pan that he keeps in his bag over a little campfire that he sit up. He seems too tired to notice Vashta's flirting, and just mumbles, "Hnrm? Yeah, mmhmm," as he portions out fried breakfast.
Shalelu is already up, sitting on the thick branch of a nearby tree, her thousand-yard stare shooting off into the trees. She munches absentmindedly on a piece of flatbread.
Clara sleeps restlessly, crying out unintelligibly several times in the night. When the sun rises she pulls her cloak over her head to sneak in a bit more rest. Eventually though she drags herself out of her bedroll (hair completely untended) and joins the breakfast fire.
She just catches the tail end of Tallak and Sandru persuading Ameiko to return to the caravan. Clara opens her mouth and--to her own great surprise--out comes a metalic voice speaking draconic,
Clara cocks her head to the side, and then (back to her own voice) says, "I, um, I mean it's probably a good idea that you're hanging back, Ameiko." Then, scratching her head, she adds, "Say, can someone look in my throat? I think I may've accidentally swallowed a dragon."
She opens her mouth for examination and again the draconic voice comes out,
Clara opens her mouth to answer, and realizes she's having a conversation with herself. She closes her mouth and then opens it again. Looking at her allies, she says, "Uh hey, it seems like Kolung's in my brain. That's pretty cool, huh? I mean, I haven't figured out the long lost recipe to the Ultimate Fizzy Drink yet but hey--I've got a REAL DRAGON in my head!"
Tallak arches an eyebrow at the gnome's outburst, only somewhat more unusual than normal. He shakes his head and helps Ursus back into his armor, just in case of a surprise attack or encounter with a scout or patrol.
He finds himself making his way to the base of the tree Shalelu is sitting in, stretching his limbs and testing the limits of the new armor he is wearing, from some beast the others claim to be a "rhino." Such creatures did not exist this far north, so it was definitely a unique prize for someone of the Linnorm Kingdoms to own.
He leans against the base of the tree and looks off towards Ravenscraeg. "Do your eyes see anything in the distance, elf-maiden?" he asks.
"Ooooh, hey, why don't you ask me?" Clara butts in. "I have REAL DRAGON EYES NOW!"
After squinting in the distance, she says, "Actually I don't really see much out there."
A voice in her head says,
Tallak grinds his teeth at the gnome's persistence with her delusions.
"I have heard tales, little one, of men who truly believed to have more than one soul, more than one mind even. They behaved differently, spoke differently. They were often called 'Mind-Touched'," he replies to her. Or rather...touched in the head...
"Very well then. Let me have a look and see if I can determine what ails you," he adds before examining the gnome with both magic and knowledge.
__________
A calm (though still quite forceful) voice with a Draconic accent booms from Clara's mouth.
"Hey!" Clara adds in he own voice, "Don't talk about me like I'm not here.
"You're using my mouth!"
Vashta eyes the gnome askance, pulled from her disappointment at Sandru's reaction.
She watches as Tallak approaches.
"I've certainly heard of stranger things, but if you find nothing, dear, I'm happy to look too. A little touch treatment may do wonders."
Shalelu, Sandru, Ameiko and Ulf all stop and stare at Clara as she bursts out with the booming voice of a dragon. Nobody really says anything though, as Tallak and Vashta have already said what needs to be said
As the group packs up camp and gets ready to leave, Ameiko gathers everyone together for another goodbye. "Hey guys, I just really want to thank you again for coming after me. I'm not sure what I think about this whole... royalty thing, but it sure does make me feel like a princess to have all my friends come after me. No matter what, you have my love." She hefts the little bag of things that they've given her. "I'll make sure you come back to a big pile of cash, if you make sure you come back! Kick the butts of those Rimerunners for me, and make sure I get to come along on the next one, okay?"
Calistril 17th, Early
The party leaves the campsite behind, heading off into the forest to the south of Kalsgard, Sandru and Shalelu in tow. The hills get bigger and craggier, and the forest gets less sparse as the group travels. The trail winds its way through green bogs filled with swaying cat-tails, and around huge boulders that lie in the way. Eventually, the hills rise sharply just ahead of where the group is. A craggy shale escarpment hundreds of feet high lies before the group, with a stone-and-timber longhall and tower tucked into a shadowed rift near the top.
The hall stands nearly one hundred feet above the base of the cliff, with only a single wooden stair climbing in a series of switchbacks up the cliff face to its front gate. All is silent save for the occasional caw of a raven, creatures which seem to be ubiquitous around here.
Shalelu points up the mountain, her eyes narrowed. "There are some men up there waiting for us. Near the top, behind a barricade."
Tallak studies the area, and looks around for any animals nearby.
There are plenty of ravens everywhere. Dozens, maybe hundreds of them.
Tallak holds his arm out and, using his ability to speak with animals, asks one to come speak with him.
A raven flaps over towards Tallak and lands on his arm. It squawks. "Food?" it asks.
Vashta lets her hand linger a little, caressing the back of the older Varisian's neck as she installs her trick, giving him a warm smile.
She says nothing at his kind remark in return, turning and sauntering away as she hopes he takes a long look.
"That's a long way up," she notes as they arrive at the foot of the bluff.
"Can you tell if they've seen us already, Shelelu?" she asks, her eyebrows rising as one of the birds lands on Tallak's arm.
"You really are more than just a pretty face, dear, aren't you?" she murmurs as she waits to see what the big Ulfen intends.
Tallak offers the raven a scrap of meat from his stores before continuing...pointing out various structures as he speaks to it.
Shalelu shakes her head. "Not from here, probably not. I'd guess they're watching the path." Sandru harrumphs and crosses his arms. "Why don't we give them something to look at, rush up the path and just attack them?"
The raven squawks, gobbles up the bit of meat its offered and then flies off. After about half an hour it returns, shrieks loudly until it's given another piece of meat, and offers its information.
"Don't know about other way up roost, but big-green-man-burrow is on the other side of this man-roost, and big-green-men go in and out."
The raven cocks its head at Tallak before squawking and flying away.
"It seems a long way to rush, darling, especially if we don't want to be seen," Vashta says dubiously at Shalelu's suggestion. "I'm not really made for rushing up a path toward waiting weapons."
She taps her foot anxiously as she awaits the bird's return, fiddling with the various belts and buckles on Harrow's bags and saddle.
"What did it say, dear?" she asks, once it makes its report.
Tallak thanks the bird and let's it fly off. "We are out numbered, and they have more of the bird-men, but they seem to have a foe of their kind among them that they hide from. The trolls have a cave on the other side of the fortress. Perhaps we could, as a start to our attack, arrange for a cave in to trap them in, at least long enough for us to focus on the guards at the castle before we turn our attention to the trolls."
"Divide and destroy." Calder nods. "A good plan."
Sandru blinks. "What are we gonna do to cause a cave-in?" he asks. "Clara's explosives, you think?"
Tallak grins. "I was the White Wolf of the Utgar Clan, as my father was before me. The spirits of the wilds, elements, and my ancestors answer my call, should it be worthy. I am confident the magic I have at my disposal will be enough for what we need, if I can make it to their barrow unseen."
"Ooooh, you were a white wolf, and you can talk with birds, and your mate is a bear...AND you can make caves collapse? There's more to you than meets the eye, Tallak Sigurdarson.
"And that plan sounds like a nice way to barrow some time to deal with the Rimerunners."
She turns to the party's scouts. "Do you think we can find a path through that avoids whatever nasty monster those Tengu are hiding from? And approaches from behind, like Tallak suggests?"
"Is there a chance the trolls' tunnel leads up to our real destination, dears? If so, that might be helpful. Sometimes it's better to sneak in or out of someplace instead of trying brute force."
Shalelu considers. "We could make it around the back of this mountain, and obviously I can go and look to see for sure, but I would wager it would mean scaling a cliff if we wanted to bypass this whole path and hit them from behind."
"If we can make everyone invisible again, we might be able to sneak up the front path. Even if we only want to make one person invisible, we can still sneak up the path just to see with our own eyes what's up there." She squints, looking at the path. "Unfortunately, it looks like there's only one narrow road up that mountainside, so it's not likely we'd be able to avoid whatever 'predator' is up there."
Sandru brings up Vashta's suggestion. "Yes, it's certainly possible. It would make the two factions more accessible to each other. But of course, if we want to go that way we have to fight a bunch of trolls and we can't cave them in. On the other hand, if we cave them in and it leads to the castle anyway, it doesn't do anything."
"We could also perhaps send someone into the cave invisibly to look around? Or could a troll smell that person?"
Shalelu shrugs. "I'm not sure. I don't know too much about trolls other than the basic, 'kill it with fire'."
Tallak shakes his head, "A troll's nose is as keen as a good hunting hound. And, while it is possible that there is a connection from the castle to the caves, I think it is still worth sealing that route up. If nothing else, it blocks off a potential escape route, if the two are connected."
"Ooo! Ooo! That's right. Trolls have excellent noses. In fact, while troll blood is the best known alchemical ingredient that comes from them, troll mucus is prized as well. You might've noticed I collected some yesterday, and I've just started investigating how it might help to improve my fizzy drinks.
"Speaking of which, I've heard that great great great grandpapa Umbilicus could brew Fizzy Drinks of Insmellability but it's not anything I know how to do yet. I'll make a note to start researching that!"
At Shalelu's mention of scaling a cliff, Clara scratches her head. "I do know a cool fizzy drink my aunt Yiddlefiklik calls 'Monkeyfish'. If you're not too loaded down, it'll let you climb quite well for about 5 minutes...but I'm not really sure that'll be enough time to scale a mountain, and I'm not much of a climber otherwise."
"But if they are connected, dear, and we seal the exit up, won't the trolls be forced right to where we want to go?"
Tallak scowls at the southerner's point. He looks back to the mountain keep. "I could work a path of handholds into the mountainside, with enough time. Would take up most of my potent magic to do so, though, and even then, I won't be able to finish it until tomorrow. Unless any of you are also capable of using magic to shape the stone of the earth."
Clara shrugs. "Shaping rocks is pretty cool, but why go through all that trouble when you can use fizzy-drinks?
"That cliff only looks to be 100' up. What if one of us drinks my fizzy lifting drinks, and then goes up and drops down a rope?
"I've already prepared one today, and could prepare another if need be...but one should be fine, really...if they don't see us.
"I guess that's the next question. How likely are they to be able to see us coming that way? And send someone to do something about it? (If we want to go really fast, I could make two fizzy lifting drinks and one monkeyfish soda. If Calder gets the monkeyfish soda, maybe I can ride on his back. Meanwhile, say, Tallak and Shalellu can levitate up, tie ropes, and help Sandru and Vashta up...but that's a lot of soda to drink all at once, so if we think we can get up there slowly and unnoticed with a single drink + some rope, that seems best of all."
"Well, either of those plans certainly sound like they could work, my dears. I haven't had to do much climbing in a while, but I think even I could make it up a rope. I think. I even have a few charms that could help make it safer..."
Clara takes a few minutes to make a couple more fizzy drinks: one more fizzy lifting soda and another fizzy shrinking drink.
Then she hands Calder his. "OK Calder, ready to levitate? Have a very fizzy fizzy drink and let's head up there!"
The group proceeds around to the side of the mountain. Once there, Clara gives Calder one of her fizzy-lifting drinks. He Ulfen warrior levitates up the side of the cliff, long rope in hand. Over the course of the next thirty to forty minutes, he helps to lift everybody up the cliff while they do their best to climb. Everyone, especially Clara, nearly falls a few times, though Calder manages to catch everyone in time.
He's tough as well, and helping to lift people doesn't tire Calder out.
The party continues on once they're all atop the cliff face, climbing around not difficult, but inconvenient rocky slopes for a few minutes. After a couple minutes, the group comes to what seems to be a little hidden dell behind the castle.
Ravenscraeg lies ahead of the group, imposing towers rising from the stone longhall. No enemies are in sight, although about a dozen sheep walk peacefully back and forth, grazing in the grassy dell.
Climbing down a short but steep stone flank will lead somebody down to the dell. To the south, a winding dirt path leads down the back of the mountain and into the thick of the forest. Ahead to the north, the path moves through a small pristine field, across a short wooden bridge that provides access over a small stream, and up to a small back gate in the castle wall.
The stream comes from higher up on the mountain, and passes through a grate on the longhall's wall.
"I guess that gate is where we have to go," Vashta says as she slips back into her chain shirt.
"I don't think we have enough magic to make us all invisible, so I suppose we'll just have to try to be quiet and hope no one sees us," she concludes.
She's so busy focusing on the others, though, that she ignores most of her own training from childhood and is far more obvious than she'd like to be.
Sandru jumps down ahead of the group, and Shalelu keeps up the rear with bow in hand. Fortunately, it does not seem to be that anybody is back here watching this side of the castle.
Sandru advances up to the gate, checks it real quick, and says, "It's locked," speaking softly. He pulls out some tools and gets to work.
He fiddles with the lock for about thirty seconds before announcing that it's been unlocked. "Be careful, it sounds like there's people in here. Ready when you are to proceed."
Shalelu raises a concern - "I'm not sure how effective I'll be in the close quarters of the inside of a castle. Do you want me in there? If so, should I switch to my shortsword, or should I watch your escape route?"
"You are too good with that bow, elf maiden," Tallak whispers. "Let us clear the way, then you follow behind and make sure we aren't flanked."
Tallak then turns to Sandru, "Let Ursus take the lead. The moment you open the door, he will charge in and I shall ask the ancestors to steal the voices of those within."
_________
Shalelu nods. "Sounds like a decent plan. We're going for the kill?"