More heads are certainly stronger than one, but I wouldn't say better. Anyhow, let's be on, those of you who are hungry can eat while we walk.
It doesn't take long to eat what's left of the troll, and soon you're following Kanin through the forest to the south. It's a long journey, punctuated only by a bit of hunting when Kanin notices some deer along the way .
At last Kanin stops, as the sun is on the horizon. Well, probably. You can't really see it through the trees, but it's getting dark.
"Was about here where they attacked me," he says. "See the tracks?" He points at the ground.
"Deer's good. I could eat deer," as Ziphora chomps down on the deer. "Better cooked though."She comments.
"Blockhead! Go find us some bear owls!"
Maybe we could sleep here for the night and hope they find us? Tomorbataar licks himself like a cat, his skin still burned. I wouldn't mind, and this fellow here can feed us, clearly.
Tomorbataar votes to sleep for the night and fight in the morning.
Blockhead jams his head to the ground and takes a mighty SNIFFF!!, and almost inhales an Owlbear turd...
The resulting neck-jerk reaction is almost violent enough to shake the body and the resultant sneeze showers Morheads's eidolon with snot and turd...
I... SNRAXXX!!... Gots the... SNRAXXX!!... Scent now...
The eidolon heads begin licking each other clean.
Blockhead can easily follow the trail with that roll, whenever you choose to do so.
"You found the scent, Blockhead? What are we waiting for, lets go!" Ziphora pipes up.
Ziphora looks at the eidolon heads licking themselves clean. "Eww, they just licked snot and turd..." then winces and looks away.
"Blockhead, please try to sneeze, not in anyone's direction, ok?"
Ziphora votes to follow the trail, without resting.
Yes Blockhead, please don't ever do that again, it's foolish at best. Tomorbataar keeps himself far away from both the eidolon and the blockhead.
But what if we need to fight again? It would be nice to take some time to rest and heal naturally beforehand, and it seems likely we'll have to fight. After all, they are bears.
"No, no, no. How many times have I told you, we do not fight with everything we see. We'll talk nicely to them and we'll all part as friends! And bears are friendly. I heard voices on the wind speaking about a friendly bear, from what was it, the Jungle Book? And everyone says owls are wise. We'll get along fabulously with these bear owls, since they're both friendly and wise." She replies to Tombataar with her voice full of good cheer.
The Jungle Book, huh? I bet that had lots of other nonsense, like a speaking snake. Tomorbataar coils up like a snake so that nobody else can hear him mutter to himself about how nobody else has any sense.
Dru-head will cast Cure Light Wounds twice, once on Tom, once on block.
Boom. Like a whole night right there. And my appetites gone.
"It wasn't nonsense. It was an epic tale of adventure. There was a smart and loyal panther as well. Oh. And the Tiger, Shere-Khan was a big baddie. Why did he want to kill the man-cub that had done him no harm?"
"If you won't be needing me, I'll start back to th' fort," Kanin says, turning from the bickering heads to head back.
Dru-head votes to continue.
Sensing the deadlock Hungry votes to continue!
Forward!
You press onward, following Blockhead's nose. Behind you, Kanin turns back towards the fort, glad to be forgotten.
You travel for perhaps half an hour in the twilight before noticing an owlbear in the distance. It notices you, too, and immediately starts running in the opposite direction.
Very well, with extra healing I suppose we shall continue. Tomorbataar urges them all forward after the trail.
As the owlbear runs off, Tomorbataar shouts after it, why do you run from us? We have done you no wrong.
Tomorbataar votes to follow at full speed.
"Owwwl there. We bear words from the humans. Please stop killing them and leave them in peace. Its really hard for them to bear."Ziphora adresses the running owlbear.
"There,"she turns to the other heads, inordinately pleased with herself. "I spoke both owl and bear so they should be able to understand either way."
Vote to follow at full speed.
Blockhead has his head half burried in the ground and digging a trench while seeking the scent when he looks up and sees his target. Immediately his wild instincts kick in and he raises his head to the (really really) bright moon and...
AAARRRRROOOOO!!!!
Next thing he jambs his nose back to the ground with renewed determination and gives chase.
"Coward! Get back here!"
Vote to give chase like a madhydra!
"More food! After it before it gets away!"
Hungry votes to follow at full speed.
You give chase, but it quickly becomes clear that you won't be able to keep up with him. Them, rather--you see a second one about sixty feet in front of the first now, also fleeing in terror.
"Bear Owls! We want your promise that you'll stop attacking any more humans. "
Ziphora votes to chase more, so that she can get their word.
Come now owlbears, we just want you to slow down a bit so we can...talk to you!
Tomorbataar votes to keep after them.
Hungry begins chanting invocations and waving his wand around. With a surge of magical light an small multicolored dragon shoots from Hungry an zigzags towards the second Owlbear and it explodes in a marvelous brightly colored display.
Oooh...pretty. I don't suppose you could try setting fire in front of them, so that they run back towards us?
The owlbear flinches as the firework explodes around it, instinctively covering its eyes and avoiding being dazzled by the light. It screeches wordlessly in fright at the explosion. It keeps running, though.
Morheds reels back and bites into the hydra's butt, inspiring the body to go significantly faster.
Hungry continues to fire 1 firework a round for the remaining 5 rounds of the spell, targeting the farthest owlbear until it gets out of his 640 ft. range then any remaining fireworks go to the other owlbear.
"Hungry, why are you firing fireworks at them. They haven't done anything to us yet!" Ziphora protests.
With your hasted steps you're catching up to the owlbears. The further one flinches as another firework explodes around it, crashes into a tree while it's not watching and quickly gets back to its feet to keep running.
You can see, between the trunks of the trees, a sort of burrow in a hill ahead. The owlbears seem to be headed towards it.
"Have you already forgotten, sister, that we were asked by Sir Torlgrith to kill the owlbears?"
Of course they have, Ziphora, they've eaten some of our potential allies. Now I suppose this means that they are actually just giving us work... Suddenly Tomorbataar's eyes light up. What if we come to an agreement with the owlbears to not attack the humans or we'll eat them, and then we go back to the humans and tell them they have to keep paying us or we'll let the owlbears eat them!
It's brilliant, now we just have to convince them. Anybody speak their language?
"But..but...I'm sure Sir Tolgrith wouldn't mind if we could negotiate a treaty with them. Or scare them away so they won't come back..."
As far as Hungry can recall, owlbears have animal-level intellects, and so have no capacity for language. Of course, he mostly remembers this from Sir Torlgrith having said as much.
"I'm pretty sure Owlbears can't talk and are only as smart as animals. So I doubt we'll be able to "make an agreement" with them.
While I really like the idea of blackmailing the humans at the fort for better food and rewards, I doubt that they actually have the resources to meet our demands. If we tried it we would only raise their ire and bring about our demise. Something not beneficial to us in the long run."
Sir Torlgrith feels the hairs on the back of his neck sticking up, but is unable to identify just why this is.
Ziphora looks crestfallen. "I think we've made our point. Let them retreat into their burrows. Doubt they'll be troubling anyone any further."
Firing more fireworks, "That, OR they'll come out tomorrow angrier than ever and coming after us."
Maybe you're right, Hungry, I suppose we should just keep getting rewards from them as fast as we can. Anyhow, if the owlbears are as dumb as real bears they'll not reach any agreements. Plus we already said we would kill them, and I would prefer to stick to our deal with Torlygrith if possible. Tomorbataar ignores the obvious contradiction between suggesting blackmail and wanting to honor the agreement.