"Reputations aside, they're sentient. Tyg and Perly didn't say anything about this one being violent. I think diplomacy is at least worth a try." She gestures towards the larger ruin. "His 'pet' is over there."
The Vixen agrees with Eunomia. "I'm sure there're those who say all humans do this, all gnomes do that, all redheads're hot.
"The last bit's true," she says in a tone that suggests—
Eunomia's lips quirk upwards at the Vixen's joke. She doesn't display any other reaction; trying her best to focus on the task at hand. "Whenever you're ready then. I won't be able to help with the translating, but I'll back you up if things go south."
As you draw closer to test the boggard's "hospitality," the wet sound of your boots squelching through the sodden ground attracts the frog-man's attention. He sharply turns his bulbous head in your direction. Owing to their bulging size, it is hard to discern whether or not they widen in surprise.
He takes a few striding steps forward, unhindered by the marshy terrain, but stops suddenly and throws his broad, webbed hands into the air. One of them is lumpy and disjointed, reminiscent of Barris' injured hands. Thus, you guess that this boggard suffered an injury at some point in the past that has healed poorly.
"Truce!" he calls out in a hoarse, throaty voice. He vigorously waves his hands in a show of frightened peace. "Truce! Truce!"
The Vixen sees the frog-man does not wish to fight.
"Vixen's me name," she says. "Ye can put yer hands down. What happened to yer hand anyway, if ye don't mind me asking?"
She trusts Ahto will do his thing, but the boggard seems sincere as far as VV can tell... and quite frightened.
Harmond gives a startled jump as the creature speaks. Given a few moments he composes himself.
"Eeep! That... That was unexpected. Hello! Are you a friendly sort?"
The creature lowers his hands slightly, though still keeping the palms open plaintively.
His thin-lipped, broad mouth hangs open, and he continues to stare nervously.
"Truce, truce," he repeats, nodding in agreement. He slaps a palm to his chest and croaks, "Me. Boggard."
He then points towards the larger overgrown ruin and says, "Slurk," before shaking his head and hands in gestures that clearly mean "no."
Eunomia smiles at the boggard, keeping her hands clearly visible and away from her weapons. "Truce," she agrees.
She points to her own chest and says, "Eunomia." She then points at the boggard. "What's your name?"
Harmond points to his ears, then to the Boggan's mouth. Talking slowly and loudly in that way you do when the person you are speaking with can't possibly understand you anyways.
"I am going to cast a spell to let me understand you. You can speak Boggard. Do you understand? Speak. Boggard."
With that Harmond casts
The Vixen sees the boggard has limitations regarding the common tongue.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Slurk." She makes an effort to speak a tad slower, enunciating her words. "Can you understand us?"
When she asks the question, the Vixen makes a subtle change in her stance, raising a heel slightly with her knee bent and the toe of her boot still on the ground.
The boggard fails to understand the Vixen's words, much less their deeper meaning. Nevertheless, perhaps impelled by the party's willingness to talk, or perhaps recognizing that Harmond has cast a non-threatening spell, he begins to speak in his deep, croaking language.
On the night before he was to be executed, while the guards were distracted, Garuum smashed one of his hands with a rock so he could slip it free from his bonds. Thus, he escaped, and after freeing Ubagub, the pair fled eastward into exile.
He does not want to cause problems, and as long as you do the same, he is willing to leave you be. He simply wants to be left alone to rule his own little kingdom here, largely amounting to just these ruins.
The Vixen says, ”Even me way with words don’t work on him, which means this conversation’ll go one way—unless o’ course we’ve a means to cast Harmond’s magic on him.”
Harmond listens to the Boggard intently, nodding along.
"Well. This is quite interesting. His name is Garuum." Harmond waves to him as he mentions the name. "He comes from the west where his tribe imprisoned him when he challenged for leadership and lost. He hurt himself escaping. His pet is a slurk? I think. Either way its name is Ubagub. Thats a cute name. He wants to rule his kingdom here. Which I think, is these ruins?"
At Vixen's suggestion Harmond looks at her sheepishly. "I don't know how to cast the spell on someone else. It only works on me."
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Wonky looks on with admiration at Harmond's use of his magicks.
"If I had prepared that extract of mine today, I could offer it to Garuum and let him understand us fully," Wonky explains. "Alas, I chose different formulae to prepare."
Wonky calms her canine companion as she pockets the conjured ammunition for her stonebow.
Despite the language barrier, Garuum recognizes Ahto's intent. The boggard offers the closest thing to a smile that a frog can muster, and it is simultaneously reassuring and unnerving.
A large frog beast, possessing walrus-like tusks and slimy, purplish skin waddles out from the larger ruin. A look of curiosity quickly fades and it offers a throaty gurgling growl. However, Garuum soon croaks soothing words to the creature. This seems to placate the tusked amphibian, for it withdraws warily back into its lair.
Eunomia nods. "He seems peaceful enough. Perhaps we could come back at some point with Wonky's extracts to have a fuller conversation. For now though I see no reason to bother him."
She looks around the ruins one more time. "I doubt he'd want us exploring his 'kingdom.' Should we press on, or is it late enough that we want to set up camp nearby?"
The Vixen says, "I agree. A two-way conversation'll clarify that he can keep the ruins, but he can't harm any innocents. Especially our new fey friends."
She looks around the ruins one more time. "I doubt he'd want us exploring his 'kingdom.' Should we press on, or is it late enough that we want to set up camp nearby?"
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Wonky speaks excitedly with Harmond as the group move away from Garuum's 'kingdom'.
"Just think, a boggard that wishes to live in harmony with civilisation around him! This seems to be the dawning of a new age of diplomatic relations with a race of people formerly known as bloodthirsty and savage - well, at least one of them!"
"The king he challenged sounds like a dick," the Vixen opines.
Those words just slipped and fell out of her mouth. She goes on, as if there was an intended purpose to her comment, "Maybe with the help o' yer extract, we can ask why he challenged his king. Was it simply about power, or did he mean to unseat a tyrant?"
Harmond picks up on Wonky's enthusiasm and shares it. "I know! I'm curious to see if they can truly integrate with civilized society. Or what if their savage urges are inherent to their nature? I wonder if we can find more savages to integrate into society? We could turn this into a large scale sociological experiment!"
Eunomia raises an eyebrow. "If we're trying to open diplomatic relations, calling them savages is probably not a good way to start. Although I suppose we'll be able to determine Garum's nature better once we can have an actual conversation. If nothing else, it would be useful to learn more about this 'king.'"
Despite the productive, peaceful overtures made with the boggard exile, you decide it is wise to give Garuum his space for now. You spend the rest of the day mapping out the rest of the trails, grottos, gullies, and rivulets that span this stretch of forest along the Skunk River. Towards evening, you find a dry and sheltered clearing at the foot of a wagon-sized rock outcropping in which to make camp.
The only disturbance during the night is a poorly muffled argument you hear between your fey companions.
Addison approaches the fey and asks, "Is everything alright?"
While she agrees that Garuum deserves the presumption of innocence, the feys' safety is very important to Addy. But maybe the argument is unrelated to the way Garuum was handled, hence the open question.
"This turnip-head," Tyg says, frustratedly gesturing to Perlivash with both hands, "Wants to sneak back and prank the frog man! Even I know that's a bad idea. You guys just managed to make a truce with him!"
"That's why it'll be funny," the faerie dragon counters. "Garuum'll never see it coming! I'm sure he won't be mad. He'd never even know it was us."
Addy says, "I don't think Garuum'll find it funny though. Can ye do me a favor and trust Tyg on this one? We intend to meet him again with one o' Wonky's extracts. To prank him now might make him think we're all in on the prankster bit. So imagine how li'l trust he'll have when we try to get him to drink something."
Addy removes the Invisibility potion from her purse, and gives it a look as if someone handed her a bottle of urine.
"He'll be like, ye put ghost peppers in this? It looks like something ye made in a lab. Maybe it'll turn me skin purple. Y'know what I'm sure yer potion's good for?" Addy overturns the vial (which of course still has the stopper on) and says, "Watering me lawn!
"That's what I'd do with a drink offered by someone I don't trust... minus the whole get off me lawn attitude." Addy then says in a more serious, but also very friendly tone, "I trust the two o' ye, so I know when I say it's important not to prank the frog-man, I don't need to worry."
Perlivash's muzzle takes on the draconian expression of a scolded child caught in his mischief by a mother. Through his pouting, he seems genuinely remorseful.
"You're right, I suppose," he concedes.
"Besides, when we head back home, we can always prank Breeg a bit more," Tyg suggests. "That mean biggins isn't anyone's friend, so who cares if he gets mad?"
The suggestion perks up Perlivash's tapered ears and brow horns.
"No, no! We don't need to do that!" the faerie dragon hastily rebuffs. "Miss Addy Vixen is right, we should give a care towards trust. That should also apply to Mr. Breeg."
He doesn't seem keen on even discussing the man, much less getting near him.
Eunomia's eyes narrow. Strange. He's so eager to prank everyone else, why balk now?
She doesn't say anything, preferring to wait until she can get the faerie dragon alone. Instead she busies herself with getting ready while keeping an eye out for a good moment.
Addy remembers the earlier conversation about Breeg. She says of the unethical trapper, "Breeg's idea o' pranking's a person stepping into his unmarked trap. I imagine his cruelty'd get a sight worse if provoked, so one who'd care if he's mad's pretty much anyone who can't turn invisible and fly away."
Not actually wanting to sound like a mother to her little friend, Addy changes the subject.
"Didn't ye mention a friend with an elk statue not far from the spring? I believe our business in the area's done, but..." Not sure how else to put it, she simply admits, "I ain't in a hurry to part ways."
She say to Ahto, "I expect we've a common path with the fey as we head back to our respective homes, but do ye think we should go with 'em and check on their friend Horace?"
"I...I...I just don't want to bother him," Perlivash stammers. His anxiety visibly grows now that he's put on the spot. "What if he starts letting off arrows? He could hit Tyg or one of you folks. It's just a bad idea, is all!"
His excuse is obviously false, fabricated on the spot. The faerie dragon is afraid to disclose the truth at the heart of his anxiety, but his resolve is quickly crumbling as your eyes remain upon him.
"Yes, Horace!" he agrees with Addy, desperate to change the subject. "It is always better to seek out friends rather than enemies. That is a much better path."
Wonky's question offers a brief reprieve for the faerie dragon.
"Horace is a unicorn!" Perlivash eagerly explains. "He's a good pal. He has connections in the First World and brings back some blessed mead to share."
Ahto's stern questioning, however, breaks through the last of the faerie dragon's resolve.
"Okay, okay. I did something bad," Perlivash admits with a heavy sigh. "A while ago, I caught Breeg setting another one of his traps. It was one of those ones that drops logs onto the animal. I didn't want him to squash anyone, so I chewed through the ropes. I thought they would just fall down and spook him, but the logs rolled onto Breeg and crushed his legs. I couldn't push them off of him, so I had to leave him there."
Addy grins.
"Serves him right, for the suffering he's dished out. But we're better than him, so we'll come to his rescue and..." Addy glances at Wonky, "...I believe meeting Horace is our immediate next stop."
Addy then says mostly to new friends, and especially Eunomia. "I'm a skilled bluffer, but even to bluff I only speak truthful words. So Pervalish, if Breeg asks how we found ye, I can say someone witnessed the trap backfiring. If he didn't see ye, he don't know ye caused it and I won't rat ye out. Likely, he won't suspect I'm hiding anything.
"But it's better I not be kept in the dark on the one detail that's eating at me. Did he see ye or not?"
If Pervalish says he believes Breeg didn't see him, Addy's follow-up question is how Pervalish can be sure. Was Pervalish invisible? Is it possible Breeg heard the chewing sound? Were there sounds of fey laughter?
Addy doesn't expect Breeg will be very talkative, but she wants to be mentally prepared for the trapper to question the odds that the poetic justice he received is sabotage rather than coincidence.
The expression upon Perlivash's muzzle deepens, going from merely that of a scolded child to a terribly remorseful soul.
"It was a fortnight ago," the faerie dragon admits. "He never saw me, even when I came back. I would leave him food and refill his canteen when he was asleep. He never saw me. I was always invisible. He got sick though, and I couldn't do anything to help. He's dead."
Perlivash closes his eyes, struggling not to cry.
Addy shrugs and says, "Well, ye didn't mean it." She turns to Ahto and says, "Right? And if there ain't nothing we can do for this trapper, who's caused plenty of accidents himself, maybe visiting the unicorn's clearly a better use of our time." Addy makes a few subtle gestures as she speaks, the least subtle being a hand gently caressing her throat—a sign that could be easily misinterpreted...
As she goes on, the implication is clear, "The death's an accident, and all the fey meant to do's disarm the trap. We're likely the first humans to earn the trust o' these li'l creatures, so ain't a way he could've asked for help."
As for the gesture at the throat as she says the word 'clear'... Wonky cleared her throat. Addy seems certain that "Wonky needs to talk to that unicorn."
Harmond perks up when the word "unicorn."
"A Unicorn!? Does he talk? I mean, of course he talks, he has a name and brings you mead. Wait. How does he bring mead? does he have hands. I have soooo many questions. Can we meet him?"
Eunomia keeps her own face carefully neutral, although she longs to comfort the clearly remorseful fey. "So you tried to disarm the trap, it backfired and caught Breeg, and he ended up dying despite your efforts to keep him alive. Is that the full truth of the matter, Perlivash?"
A man is dead. A despicable man maybe, one who won't be missed, but it's still important to have all the facts.
Eunomia and Ahto can both confirm that Perlivash is, indeed, telling the full truth. At this point, he is incapable of lying or holding back any informaton.
Tyg flies over and lands on Harmond's shoulder. She clearly feels awkward seeing her friend break down like this, and she desperately wants to avoid being part of this drama. She speaks into his ear, although her voice still wavers a bit whenever her eyes dart over to Perlivash.
Harmond speaks quietly but excitedly, not wanting to upset Perlivash, but obviously unable to hold back his curiosity.
"Thank you Perlivash. I appreciate your honesty." Eunomia casts a sideways look at Ahto. "For what it's worth, it sounds like you did everything you could. You were trying to disarm the trap to prevent it from hurting anyone else. That it ended up catching Breeg was...was more of an accident than anything else."
She crouches down to look the tiny dragon in the face. "I'll tell you what can be done. For now we'll go visit your friend Horace. But on the way back, you'll show us where Breeg's body is so we can give him a proper burial." Or whatever is left of him, she mentally amends. "While we're there you can also help us find any other traps that might still be around, so we can disarm them. Does that sound fair?"
Although she's still facing the dragon, it's clear that the question is at least partly directed at Ahto.