Douena eyes the rodent almost a third her own size a little warily. "You can carry the rats, Pezock," she tells him graciously. "We need a sack, Lorenz. Where's the sack you put all the snakes in?"
Lorenz digs around in his pack and pulls out a sack, eyes it for holes and hands it over. "That should work, assuming they don't gnaw their way out of it."
Shokambe calls out to the approaching trio, while Jask puts a hand on Pezock's arm. The tengu glares in annoyance at Jask, but quietens down and allows Shokambe to speak.
As the three people get closer, you are able to make out more of their appearances. There is one middle-aged woman and two younger men. All three are Zenj. One of the men has a spear and a shield, but is not holding them in any sort of threatening manner. The other man and the woman both hold baskets filled with a fruit and vegetables. They speak animatedly as they arrive.
"They offer us greetings," Shokambe translates, "and wish to know if we would like to trade with them. They have brought a small selection of food items with them and invite us to go with them to their village to see what else they have to offer. They say they did not bring any rats with them, but if the birdman truly wants some, they are sure some can be found in their village."
Pezock's eyes narrow at the mention of "birdman", but he holds his tongue.
"See, Pezock?" Douena asks, as she smiles at the newcomers happily. "This is traveling. Let's go to their village and meet people. Why doesn't anyone speak Normal out here, though? They all did in Eleder."
"We saved time with the shortcut through the mines, so at least going and seeing what they have to offer should not slow us down too much if the village isn't far."
"All dreams? What about nightmares?"
"Those come from Lamashtu," Douena replies, with a shudder at the name. "Real nightmares, anyway, not the ones where you're in the town square naked or have to take a test in a subject you never studied. Not the kind of scary dreams Desna sent me on the Shiv, either: they meant something and were a message for us to do something about them. Lamashtu's nightmares don't mean anything or serve any purpose; they're the ones you wake up from sweating and terrified without knowing why or remembering anything about why you're so frightened. Desna will send you unpleasant dreams sometime, to get your attention, but never a real nightmare."
Lorenz looks pleased at the offer. "I think it'd be quite nice to get to know some of the natives and see what they have for trade."
"We would be stopping for the night in an hour or two anyway," Shokambe says. "It would cost us very little time to visit their village and stay there for the night."
The others agree and the three locals readily guide you back towards the jungle. It only takes a little over twenty minutes to reach the village, which is located just inside the jungle, well shaded from the hot sun. As you enter the village, you are greeted by seemingly everyone there. Villagers smile, toting baskets of fruit, meat, and laundry. Others sit in the shade weaving leaves and vines. Barefoot children dart about chasing each other around the small huts. They all call out greetings to you, mostly in Polyglot, but a few attempt a word or two in Common, generally amounting to little more than, "Hello."
Several of the locals begin laying out food on a large table in the centre of the village. There is flatbread, fresh fruit, and some sort of porridge seasoned with sweet tubers. They invite you to eat your fill.
"Was it something we said?" Mahjik whispers to Douena and Lorenz, who seem to have caught wind of the same unusual behavior. Otherwise Mahjik smiles and waves - and to be polite he tries a little of the food on offer (primarily the flatbread and the fruit). Not wanting to look one-sided, he adds a little of his food rations (some preserves) to the collection of food.
"You don't suppose she's like the old woman on the Shiv, do you?" Douena asks uneasily, remembering the cannibals' witch and the trouble they'd had fighting her. "And the mushroom people wanted us to eat their food, too." She watches Mahjik carefully, to see if he shows any strange symptoms from having eaten the bread and fruit.
Mahjik shows no negative effects from having eaten the food. Pezock and Sasha have also started eating the food and they seem to be fine as well. Soon, the others join in, too.
While you eat, the townspeople bring out offerings for trade. They don't have a whole lot to offer, but one thing they do have in abundance is fresh food. They also have some basic tools and small crafts.
Urza doesn't have anything for trade, but he exudes charm. He even uses Prestidigitation to make temporary toys for the children.
Douena pulls out one of the red pearls she brought from the Shiv but doesn't know who's in charge to offer it to in exchange for the meal and the welcome. "Ask who's the leader of their village," she whispers to Shokambe.
Lorenz accepts the food with good will and eats of it quite heartily. At Mahjik and Douena's concerns he shrugs. "Old people rarely approve of the young. She's probably just angry they're making such a fuss of us."
He searches his pockets for something to trade and the best he can offer are some smooth stones from the seashore on the Shiv, twine and a candle.
Douena pulls out one of the red pearls she brought from the Shiv but doesn't know who's in charge to offer it to in exchange for the meal and the welcome. "Ask who's the leader of their village," she whispers to Shokambe.
Shokambe nods and speaks to one of the local women briefly before turning back to Douena. "There is an old woman who is their shaman. They look to her for leadership when important decisions are needed, but for most things, they do not have a specific leader. The old woman does not wish to join us, so we can offer our payments to anyone we wish, such as this one." He points to the woman he was just speaking to. She smiles broadly at Douena.
Douena hands over the pearl to the smiling woman unhesitatingly but asks Shokambe, "Why doesn't she like us? I'm very likeable."
"They say she is old and suspicious of outsiders," Shokambe says. He grabs a piece of fruit and bites into it. "It is not that surprising really. In fact, it's a little surprising that there aren't more in the village who think like she does. Remember the situation in Eleder. Outsiders have often give us locals reason to distrust them."
He smiles at Douena. "But do not worry yourself too much about her. Enjoy the hospitality of the rest of the villagers. We are not likely to pass another such village before Kalabuto."
"That doesn't make any sense," Douena argues. "They either value her wisdom, or they don't. If they trust her judgment for 'important decisions,' why don't they trust it when she says we're not to be trusted? None of them ever listen to me when I say bad things are going to happen," she says, gesturing to the rest of the survivors of Smuggler's Shiv, "well, except Pezock -- but they don't tell people I'm their leader, either."
"Well..." Shokambe starts, but pauses. He takes another bite of fruit while he thinks, and chews slowly. "That's a good point," he says eventually. "It's generally tradition among nomadic Zenj that the eldest shaman, almost always a woman, leads the clan. But these are not nomads. Village Zenj usually follow a male leader. This village could be made up of a mixture of Zenj descended from nomads and village folk, and of course, every clan has its own traditions..." He pauses again. "I will talk some more with them."
He turns to a nearby young man and begins conversing with him in Polyglot. Although the conversation starts out well enough, the young man soon seems uncomfortable with it and extracts himself. Shokambe tries speaking to another man, with whom he seems to have more success. A couple minutes later, he returns to Douena. "The old woman is their spiritual leader. They listen to her when she speaks to them with the voice of their ancestors. However, when she is not speaking for their ancestors, they do not follow her. They respect and honour her, but feel that she has gone senile in her old age. It is a believable explanation, but they seemed strangely reluctant to tell me it."
"Hmm," Douema comments thoughtfully, "like how everyone pays attention to my dreams when they're about snakes and ships and lost cities but not when they're about Tiny bears or bags of rats. I wish she liked us. I'd like to chat with her and tell her I know how she feels, one priestess to another."
Shokambe chuckles. "Perhaps she will come out of her hut before we leave."
After you've eaten, the villagers bring out some drums and small flutes, and begin playing music and dancing. As night starts to fall, they show you to a hut where you can sleep the night. The hut will fit your whole group, although it may be a bit tight.
"We've slept in worse." Urza settles in for a quiet night. Or at least what passes for a quiet night with Douena and Pezock in the room.
Mahjik nods off almost immediately; his performance entertaining the kids with his rendition of the wild animals in the area left him smiling with success - but it also took it out of him.
"Do they know Desna?" Douena asks Shokambe at nightfall. "Tell them I have to talk to the Lady in the stars before we rest." She moves a little way out from the village to find a quiet place to commune with her goddess.
As night settles in, you retire to your hut to prepare for bed. Douena communes with Desna out under the stars for a while before returning. Just as Douena pushes aside the blanket covering the doorway to enter, she sees the old shaman from earlier approaching the hut.
It was surprising how hard it was to appear nonthreatening, and after a a brief prayer and thanks to Nature, Makoa falls asleep near a wall, sleeping on his side to save room.
The old shaman is intent on the party's hut and so doesn't quite see Douena duck out of sight. She approaches the doorway and pushes aside the blanket. "I wish talk," she says in heavily accented Common to the people inside.
"Please come in." Urza says as he wakes up and makes room for the elder.
Mahjik sleeps, the tiny amount of noise up to now is not enough to wake him yet.
The old woman steps into the hut, letting the blanket fall back in place. She stays by the door, however, not moving any further into the room, and so, even though the blanket muffles the sound a little, Douena can still hear what she says.
The old woman straightens her back as best she can, trying not to look slouched, a determined but resigned look on her face. “I am old woman," she says, "and set in my ways. My mother teach me long ago foreigners bring curses. But this village suffers curse already. All my magic fails to lift it. The spirits do not help and I have nowhere else to turn. Perhaps I am wrong all these years, and perhaps you are ones who can help free us from the curse.”
Suddenly Mahjik is stark awake - his eyes uncommonly white in the half-dark as they are opened large and wide; almost in shock. "Wha? What?!" It takes him a few seconds to gather his wits, but then he grasps the sense of the situation. "I'll help. Of course!"
Lorenz frowns. "A curse? What kind of curse? How can we help?"
The old woman takes a moment to compose herself. "For over week now, we are plagued by chemosit. It comes in night to feed on prey, takes one of us each night to eat brain. It is evil spirit, terrible beast. Please kill it or drive away."
Animal: The chemosit regains a number of hit points equal to the victim’s Hit Dice, and the DC of its terrifying roar increases by +2.
Arcane Spell-Caster: The chemosit regains a number of hit points equal to 1d4 times the victim’s Hit Dice and gains SR 15.
Divine Spell-Caster: The chemosit regains a number of hit points equal to 1d8 times the victim’s Hit Dice.
Humanoid: The chemosit regains a number of hit points equal to 1d4 times the victim’s Hit Dice.
Outsider: The chemosit regains a number of hit points equal to 1d4 times the victim’s Hit Dice but is confused for 1d4 rounds.
Monstrous Humanoid: The chemosit regains a number of hit points equal to 1d4 times the victim’s Hit Dice and is affected as per the spell rage.
Undead: The chemosit takes 1d4 points of damage and is sickened for 1d4 rounds. In addition, the chemosit detects as undead for the purposes of spells like detect undead, though it is in no other way treated as an undead creature.
"It eats brains?" Lorenz asks uncertainly. "That sounds extremely unpleasant. What's a chemosit? Even the name is threatening and unnatural."
"An evil beast," the old woman says. "Very hairy. Like..." She pauses, trying to think of the word, then says something in Polyglot.
"Gorilla," Shokambe translates.
The old woman nods. "But hairy and sharp teeth. You will help?"
"Do you know where we can find it? Or how? Do we just wait here in the village?"
"Given the choice between risking waking up with my brains being eaten and going out to kill the beast, I know which I'm choosing. I'll help."
"I agree." Makoa says as he sits up. "I'm rather fond of my brain. When is the next attack expected?"
The old shaman smiles warily. "It comes to village every night. Fresh blood draws it to you. Put blood on door and it comes to your hut first." She ducks back out the doorway again.
Outside, Douena can watch as she returns to her own hut and goes inside.
Shortly after the shamaness leaves, Douena ducks through the door of the hut. "Anyone want to place any bets on how soon after they think we're asleep someone puts blood on our door? No wonder they came out looking for people to spend the night."
"I wonder how they found that out." Makoa grumbles as he starts testing the edges of his axe and daggers.
Lorenz shrugs. "Blood draws a lot of animals. I don't blame them for looking for help. I suggest that we put the blood on the door and then hide outside of the hut, somewhere we can keep watch. When the chemosit beasts comes, we can just pepper it with arrows from a safe distance."
"We will give it fresh blood. We must assume it is a cunning hunter, though, and will not be fooled by blood alone. Someone must stay here to make sure its attention remains where we want it. They will also be tasked with keeping it pinned to this spot. We are in the middle of a village after all. The rest can be outside hiding to attack it from range once it shows itself." Urza takes a dagger and goes outside. Remembering the island, he cuts himself and smears the blood over the entrance of the hut.
"I can stay," Mahjik volunteers. "There's good chance that I can keep it occupied for a bit - should it come. Though we must keep in mind that these people may be a superstitious lot; perhaps they have a serial killer in their midst who is taking their fears as camouflage."
"Maybe a bunch of us should stay inside," Sasha suggests. "If half wait from a distance outside, and the other half inside, we can surround it. We should be able to overwhelm it easily."
Lorenz nods reluctantly. "I suppose that would make sense.
He checks his arrows and grabs his pack. Before heading out doors, he turns back. "Has anyone ever heard of this chemowhatsit? Is it big, small, impervious to arrows? Gorilla, hairy with sharp teeth doesn't really tell me anything."
The others shake their heads. "It could be a number of things," Shokambe says. "Unfortunately, many creatures are known by many names, and the description she gave us, as you say, doesn't tell us much."
"Well then," Lorenz says with a sigh. "I'll just have to hope it isn't anything too special."