"If Kane doesn't want to go along, then I'm with him!" Peacock snarls.. "Put that bow down! I don't like people threatening my companions!"
Immediately as Peacock speaks, the grasses and weeds surrounding the gnolls rustle to life and lash at them like vicious tendrils, looking to snare the offending creatures.
Naki back peddles a bit to avoid the growth and pulls another vial, downing it.
Peacock's spell goes off despite the readied actions of the gnolls, the fey being supernaturally fast.
Only one of the gnolls is able to react quick enough to the suddenly animate grass and scrub. The speaker roars in defiance and looses his arrow at Peacock despite the vegetation pulling at him. Then he tries to pull free.
The arrow sails wide, but then he pull himself free, tearing a bunch of weeds up with him. while Naki drinks his mutagen.
The gnoll that saved fires an arrow at Naki, then moves to the edge of the spell's effect.
The other three gnolls try to break free.
Number 4 also runs to the edge of the spell's effect. Numbers 2 and 3 each make a feeble shot at Peacock with their bows, unable to pull themselves free.
Adrien's eyes narrow as he sees one of the gnolls' arrows aiming straight for his stomach. "No!"
To his surprise, the arrow bounces harmlessly off his bare skin, leaving nary a mark.
"Huh?"
Kane's wings flared out from beneath his cassock throwing it back like a cloak. With a short run he launched himself forward and flapped once, rising about ten feet in the air before angling back down again and coming down blade first at the lead Gnoll.
Jazzai was stunned with the actions and her hand tightened on Sunflower's lead. Hearing and feeling Kane move in the direction of the gnolls. Peacock's spell, and Naki drinking something she recovered from her own shock and would carefully pick her way forward 15 ft. They may need healing if they got in a fight. She can be useful that way.
Peacock flies up, bringing himself out of melee range, then whistles a note. A chorus of birds, appears to answer him, chirping and whistling soft notes in an unearthly chorus.
The gnoll on the far left is able to avoid the grasping roots, but the hunter is again ensnarled. All the gnolls, however, bark out in alarm and fear as Kane unfurls his wings and soars across the battlefield. His blade bites hard into the gnoll leader, who cries out, Stonewing! The others similarly cry out, but in their own canine language.
The hunter in desperation, nocks another arrow and shoots it at Kane, though the look in his eye seems to say he is staring at his own death.
Kane's swift reflexes ends the hunter before he can get a shot off, and the writhing plants drag the gnoll to the ground.
Peacock decides to resort to a favorite trick of his. He focuses on one of the gnolls free from the plants and invokes his magic, trying to make it slip from the gnoll's hands.
Remembering how the gnolls' previous arrows failed to hit him, he decides to try and take advantage of this by drawing fire away from his friends.
"Hey! Carrion breath! Up here! Bet you can't hit me" Peacock taunts, turning around and slapping his rear end at the hunters from up high fifteen feet in the air.
Naki scuttles forward charging at the nearest.
Naki bounds over the grasping vegetation and sinks his teeth into one of the gnolls, generating a plaintive yelp from the creature.
The gnoll Peacock targets drops his bow into the writhing weeds. He throws his paws up over his head and whimpers. The other three bay in fear as well, reacting to Kane's presence. They give up tugging at the entangling weeds and lower their heads in a gesture of surrender.
Jazzai hears the changes in their tone and the fear that encompasses them. Intersting, they call him Stonewing. I guess Sir Kane would seem scary to them.
She starts walking towards the group and speaks up in common.
"We had wished to come peacefully. As you can see, my friends are not happy you chose the other option."
She stopped just short of where the others were looking in each of the gnolls directions. Her milky white eyes blank. "Sir Kane, I think they have learned a lesson and seem to have given up."
Kane was bleeding dark, thick blood from the arrow he had taken. He slowly pulled it out. A faint purplish glow surrounded the wound. By the time it had completely withdrawn it was little more than a shallow divot, like a pockmark in a wall.
He threw the arrow at the gnolls' feat and let his cassock fall back over him as his wings folded. He put his cowl up. His eyes glowed from beneath it.
"Repent or die."
It becomes apparent that Kane dispatched the only one who spoke the common language. The others, blinking in fear and rooted to their spots by the entangling weeds, fix their attention on Kane but don't seem to understand his command. His survey reveals no evil in them (though it's possible they're not powerful enough to register).
When the battle quiets down and the gnolls surrender, Adrien unsteadily hovers to the ground. He watches hesitantly as the weeds keep lashing out.
"Um... stop?" He hesitantly asks. The plants become quiet once more, and shrink back to their original state. Huh. That worked. I think I'm getting the hang of this fey magic thing.
Kane rumbled deep in his chest. It sounded like a mild earthquake. "Their actions so far are not enough to warrant execution, and they do not have stains on their spirit. Unless someone can think of a very good reason not to, I'm going to let them go."
After the spell is ended, the two gnolls at the feet of Kane and Naki stay put, whimpering pathetically. The other two turn and bolt, heading in a direction that seems to be toward their village.
Examining his "prey" Naki lets his mutagen wear off and begins writing things down as he circles it. Finally he finishes and pushes the creature in the direction the others ran and tries to shoo it off.
Kane stands down and gestures for the gnoll to follow its allies.
The beaten gnoll takes its opening and races away, following the others.
The leader gnoll does appear to be still alive, though it is bleeding out and won't be alive for much longer.
Jazzai would kneel next to the wounded knoll and touch him his bleeding stopping. "He can speak our tongue. I think once he comes we could talk with him with a more, maybe for them. Peaceful tone. Now that he understands your strength."
"No." Kane said. "His soul is already stained by his choices. We will not save him from their consequences."
Naki moves to the side of the wounded creature and studies it from a few paces away, not wanting to rouse Kane's ire.
Peacock stands to the side, disinterested in the gnolls, and waiting for the others to make a decision. He picks up one of the fallen arrows and eyes it curiously, poking the sharp tip against his finger, curious as he finds that it leaves no trace.
"So this is the resistance of the fey..." he smiles.
Jazzai looks at Kane. "And he has no chance to recover? I can't believe that. Plus, if we just kill a downed opponent without giving him the chance to try to redeem himself what does that make us? I say we leave him alive and take him to the village as a sign of good faith. Maybe we can teach them that there is another way and not everyone wants to kill them just because they are Carrien Dogmen. Plus, do you really want a tribe of Dogmen to be after us? They may know about the keep."
It bothered her just a little. The other's at least had a chance to try to redeem themselves.
"Jazzai, I understand what you are saying. I even agree with you. Unfortunately, this creature is evil. It is not simply that it was raised on a cruel society and never held accountable. The others we released were not so far gone that there was no hope. My hope is that their experience caused them to think about their actions. It is possible. Even with this one there is a chance for change. Unfortunately, my Goddess' gift shows me that this one is powerful enough for its evil to make a genuine impact in the world. It is not merely a victim of its circumstance any longer. It has embraced those circumstances and now inflicts them on others. It has become part of the cycle that created it."
"I have to weigh the likelihood that this gnoll will be redeemed against the likelihood that it will take mercy for weakness, learn nothing, and later accost others as it did us."
"If you wish to heal it and speak to it, that is fine. We will do that for you."
"Thank you for being so caring. It humbles me."
"Let us try to give him a chance at least. I have hope at least. Should I wait to heal him until we are at the village? Or do it here?"
"Here."
Nodding she would gently place her hand on the gnolls chest and heals him.
When he comes around, if his first action isn't to try to snap at her.
"Hello. I am Jazzai. I have convinced my friend your life is worth saving. I still wish to make peaceful contact with your tribe." She said gently.
The healing mends its wounds, and the carrion dog wakes up, blinking in what might be surprise that it is still alive. It looks over its captors, and when its eyes turn to Kane, its ears droop in a motion of fear and defeat.
He shakes his head. Hrolghar not know. Not know you stonewing. Blood Tooths not fight stonewings. He lowers his head to Kane, expecting. He seems almost oblivious of Jazzai and the others, instead focusing on the "stonewing" in front of him.
Jazzai mulled over that fact and looked at Kane with her blind eyes. 'Stonewing huh. Interesting that must mean there is more. That also means we have some protection from this Blood Tooth tribes and explains their fear even more. They weren't scared of us. More the thought of harming the truce I guess they have.'
"You hold the power here Sir Kane." She told him softly as she smelled the fear coming from him and heard it in his voice.
"I do not need to hear your reasons or excuses. You threatened us in spite of our offer of peace. I let you live so we could find out why, and and to give you a chance to change your ways."
"You have not earned your life yet. You need to convince me we did the right thing."
"He's familiar with others like you, enough to recognize you and have a name for you." Naki moves forward, "Where have you seen others like him?
Kane gets a look of bewilderment, and it looks again at the others with him. The doglike humanoid appears to think, then begins to speak, slowly while making sure he gets the words right.
I am Hrolghar. Stonewings fly down from mountain, he makes a gesture towards the looming mount to the northeast. Blood Tooths cannot fight them. Stone bodies do not bleed. So Blood Tooths give slaves, food, treasure when they come.
He looks at Kane, a keen glint in his eye. You not stonewing from mountain, are you? Mountain stonewing no walk, no talk of trade or peace. Just take what they want.
"If you would have noticed it was I asking for peaceful trade. Not my companion. " Jazzai said calmly even as a little part of her also piped up. 'And the one who saved your hide. Though you are a keen one Mr. Dogman. Sorry, Hrolghar." She calmly stood and sniffed the air.
She was curious as to Sir Kane's answers to these things. If it were not for her they would be making good time. She was sure Dr. Naki would eventually gain wings from one of his/her experiments.
She felt Sunflower nose her for a snack and would pull out a carrot feeding her.
Kane hated moments like this. The gnolls were a savage people, made more desperate by being cowed and subjugated by the gargoyles. Desperation was often the first, or even only, thing neccessary to harden the heart. The symptom would never heal so long as the disease was still present.
There was only one thing to do.
"I have a message for your leader." Kane said, writing quickly on a peice of parchment. "Deliver this. Tell your leader that we will come to treat with your tribe once the stone wing threat is gone. When we do, there will be a price to pay for our help. Your people will owe us. The payment we require will be written into the laws of your people."
Jazzai blinked and switched to the draconic tongue.
"We don't even know their numbers and haven't even found our first objective. Him delivering a message gets us right back where we started. Unable to approach the tribe and ask about the keep. Set up a base of operations in which we can take on missions. You now dedicate us to a menace we might not be equipped to handle without even discussing it with us. Why not let him take us to chief and you hash it out. If he is evil he will turn it to be what he wants.."
She stroked Sunflower.
Peacock stops jabbing at his palm with the discarded arrow and looks to Jazzai and Kane curiously.
"So, what's going on now? I kind of stopped listening a while ago."
"Walking into a tribe of gnolls who have been abused by gargoyles for some time will probably get me killed." Kane said simply.
"I see no reason to treat with the tribe at all until we have done something that gives them signifigant reason not to kill us, and to change their ways."
"The gargoyles are the true threat here. I have to try to stop them. I understand if you do not feel like taking that risk."
"If you wish to meet with the chief I can add that request to the message. The Chief may be willing to meet with us on neutral ground."
"I feel that entering their home territory is a great, and unneccesary risk."