Kasia stabs up into the air with her trident.
How dangerous are these creatures? she looks to Lormo.
Vallenjos charges one of the birds with a powerful swing of his axe.
Lormo prepared his crossbow to shoot any creature close enough.
"Those are called fangbirds or vampire lizards, but they are not drinking blood. I expect their bite is poisonous, so probably we might use it if we have one or two captured. But they usually swoop to bite and fly away. I think we can handle 3 of them, but if any more approach, we will need to retreat."
Vallenjos wrecks his "fangbirds".
One of the bird swoops in and attacks Kasia.
It only got hit by an arrow for its trouble.
The last fangbird retaliates at the eagle.
The eagle continues to lash out at the fangbird in front of him.
Meanwhile, Raineth attempts to provide support for Kasia, hurling an Acid Dart towards the other fangbird.
The eagle's bite manage to do some damage to the fangbird.
Kasia jabs at air with her trident.
Lormo shot his crossbow at one of the creatures, that was attacking Kasia
Lormo's bolt took down the creature attacking Kasia.
Vallenjos moves up and swings hard and fast at the fangbird.
The creature continues to fight the eagle.
It fail to notice the arrows flying past it until one struck it's vitals, bringing it down.
"Well, that was quite the surprise!" Raineth declares as she dismisses the eagle with a wave of her hand.
Looking over the creatures, she asks Lormo, "Any specimen you wish to procure or shall we continue our expidition?"
Lormo quickly checked their vitals, but all the flying raptors were dead.
- "It would be nice to have one of those, but I believe that having my zoo big, will slow down our exploration of the island. And what is a point of research if it could not be shared with others members of society? I think we need to proceed to find our way away from this island. I still hope, that we can meet someone other that cavemen or locate a boat, that we can repair"
He reloaded his crossbow, just in case and was ready to move further.
"You should learn to draw them. Your drawings will be easier to feed, I should think."
If she sees nothing else, Kasia collects herself and checks to see if anyone is injured before leading the patrol forward quietly.
You move to the next spot. It is another nest along the cliff-face that is identical to the last one.
Remembering what happened last time, Raineth surveys the area, attempting to spot any ambushes or predators.
"I'd like to learn how to draw, but this requires long-time investment into training. Basically, to draw something you must observe something first. Without pets, I cannot find much materials to investigate and note," - answered Lormo.
As they approached another nest, he loaded his crossbow and was prepared to meet an enemy, if it appears.
It would be apparent that the nest is empty and the arrows just hit sticks and straw. In the nest is an egg.
"I do not condone this barbarism. We have much food and water already." Kasia plants her trident firmly.
"There are numerous advantages to obtaining live specimen, over diagrammatic ones, especially if one is only an amateur artist..." Raineth trails off, considering Kasia's reaction for a moment, before continuing, "However, perhaps Kasia is correct in her assertion that we have other priorities at the moment. Besides, every anthropological study I have read regarding tribal life and survival in the Mwangi Expanse has extolled the importance of community. If this matter is causing distress to a member of our community, perhaps it would be best if just continued along our predetermined route."
Initial impulse for Lormo, was to take the egg, but then he stopped: "Based on what I read about reptiloid creatures, their eggs are usually are capable to hatch without external help: this is because of climate and special positioning of their nests. Even if we were the one's who killed her parents, it should be capable to become a creature without our help.
He confirmed he is prepared for any troubles and gestured for others to get moving.
"I really hoped, those creatures might have something useful in their nests. Probably, it is too early for them to start stacking different stuff."
You return back to base camp. You tell the other campers about the fangbirds' nests. Sasha frowns abit, "Why did you not take the egg? I thought you one of those those weird lizard collectors, Lormo?"
Lormo smiles:
- "Our main target for now, should be to get more familiar with this island and find connection with main land. What the point of having collection, if you cannot show that to others"
After he finished with his evening meal and small talk, he returned to his animals. He fed and groomed them, checked their condition and after that collected some poisonous saliva. He decided that it is enough and he started mixing it with some other reagents he could find around: some distiller water, salt, animal fat.
"Oh, is it evening already?" Raineth remarks, as she sees the camp in the distance. "I suppose inform me when you intend to take your next expedition..."
Settling in to take notes on the day's events, she still keeps an open ear for any conversations that happen.
Kasia is going to try and raise morale again. Focusing on the cleric of the two-faced god.
"Let me help you with the chores."
@Lormo
@Mosi You had a bad luck making this time around. The materials you found were bent or not a good size for your bow.
Gelik tunes his lute, "Thankfully uneventful. That lizard of yours is pretty... passive for its size. It helps that we give it raw meat to keep that way. Still sleeping with one eye open."
Jask nods to Kasia, "If you can help me figure which of the plants Sasha picked for is not going to kill us, it would be a huge help."
Seeing an excuse to join the conversation, Raineth gets up eagerly and joins Jask and Kasia.
"Oh perhaps I can aid you with the berries! I once read encyclopedia about one hundred different varieties of nuts and berries that have been identified within Mwangi Expanse...It was really rather informative..." she rambles, as she begins to share everything she knows, both useful and useless, about edible berries in the region.
Lormo was spending time with his potions and reagents. Components were hard to harvest, so he tried to be very precise in his work.
The background speech of Raineth, made him think about his old lab in University. Voices coming through big doors, hundreds of students cruising the dark hallways...
@Lormo: The concoction appear to work, but when you whaff it over, a repulsive smell burns your senses. This is definitely not anti-toxin.
@Raineth: You help Jask and Kasia with the herbs and berries sorting. You identify one of the berries known to give those who eat it digestion. It looks similar to one of the more common berries except the leaves have a unique smell to it.
- Oh, no... no... no, not that... Ice, I need ice, - Lormo starts to jump away from the camp with a small vial, that lets out a thin blue smoke after making several steps into the jungle, he pours that on the ground and concoction starts slowly digesting the vegetation turning that into coal.
- Sorry! Lormo returns to others, I didn't want to make a fire in a camp... Looks like I mixed up the kaolin clay, that usually used for weak stomach diseases, and sulphate soil, that only looks like clay. Damn, it so hard to mix ingredients, when you cannot just go through University and order best or at least good quality reagent. I'll try to be more accurate next time
"Is that what I'm smelling? Try to be more careful! It attracts the beasties!" shout Ishirou from afar, working on his traps.
Kasia wants to move camp soon. If not tomorrow, then the day after. She talks about it some with the others.
"I also think, we should move", Lormo nodded, "but before that, we need to discover where and what is waiting us there... My idea is to go east tomorrow and check out, if there is a good place for camp... Remember, we need water and shade and we don't have much guards, so some natural protection like rocks or deep cavern, would be nice."
Everyone is in agreement that is time to move camp.
Kasia packs things up for the day's travel.
Your party moves east as discussed. You see more of the wild life, but they leaved you alone for the time being.
You eventually see that the bush is getting further east you go. To the south, on the other hand, it is getting thicker and as such you can't see very far.
- Oh, great! We have reached the sea... Probably, this place is as good as our current for the camp. Let's look around for fresh water stream and open ground, before we a ready to move
Lormo was excited to have another breadth of fresh air... Before returning for search, he looked at the sea, with slight hope to discover a ship.
Raineth nods, as she searches the area for anything that may prove dangerous for a new camp.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Be not so certain about that Lormo. In the wilderness, the hunter sees further, lest he should become prey. Look there - behind those rocks."