"Well, I had better find more ingredients before we step off."
Nalverren closes his book and tucks it away in a leather pouch.
"How long until we move?"
Despite knowing Bokehn's manner, Rehil is stung into silence by the half-orc's response. Still the rogue is happy they won't be dragging a raving near-corpse through the swamp.
Bokehn staggers to his feet. He doesn't look good. "We need to get going now. The lizardfolk we met before might still be looking for us." With Nalverren's supporting arm to prop up the half-orc, the group begin trooping out.
Assuming that he is sharper-eyed than most, Rehil places himself at the front of the troop.
When the party stops to catch its breath, Nalverren takes a few minutes to prepare his remaining extracts
The group descend a long, steep incline for the whole of that morning. Bokehn seems to know the way but he is gets progressively weaker as the day wears on. He is virtually collapsing when they reach the bottom of the defile and find a wooden trackway leading across swampy ground.
"It's... it's at the end of this..." he gasps before passing out.
Rehil looks with concern at their fallen leader. Then he looks at the narrow wooden track. Perfect for an ambush.
"Remember Old Man Pooma. We're going to need a friend if the scalies don't want us on their bridge."
Navlverren assists Bokehn to the ground so he doesn't get a contusion on his head. He then takes a moment to see if anything can be done or if Bokehn is done.
"well i can hopefully lead us through that swamp, how is he doing Nalverren?"
=> Nope
to aid another
"Look at how flushed his ears are. Maybe the fever is back."
"If he is to live, he needs bed rest and real care. Tea isn't gonna cut it anymore. Anyone know how far we are from the village?"
"hopefully not to far, Well if he is still living lets hurry." William will take the lead and move forward in the proper direction
The adventurers half-drag, half-carry their leader along the trackway. Floodwaters lap around it and the the footing is slick with condensation and a slimy film of algae. The wooden path twists and turns between tree trunks shaggy with moss and hanging with epiphytic orchids and ferns before it reaches a clearing beside a river. There rise the domed huts of a lizardfolk village, surrounded by a pallisade with a landward gate. There seem to be no guards.
Inside the village, most of the ground is flooded and the hut entrances submerged, but there is a central dry area with a path from the gate. As the group approaches, curious adult lizardfolk emerge to peer at them. A few carry spears and clubs, but no one attempts to halt the adventurers' entry. A crowd gathers and begins to surround the party in the dry space in the middle of the village. They mutter to one another in their hissing voices.
"Are they from the camp on the lake?"
"What is wrong with that one? Is it hurt?"
"Someone should go and get Pooma."
"Spitroast tonight!"
"Shut up, stupid, that's not funny."
William will show his hands up in a signe of non agression, waiting for the one who speaks their language to do his thing
Catching the name he desperately hoped for out of the chitterings of the local folk, Nalverren replies, "yes, please get the esteemed Pooma. This man needs treatment for severe fever."
Cole marches in, doing his best to look non-threatening while also being ready should things go poorly… as they have tended to do in the last few days. He looks over at Wultram and Portforged before scanning the village, its scaly inhabitants, and the immediate surroundings for anything that might pose a threat.
Rehil is nervous along the track, and the appearance of the village does nothing to allay his anxiety. Still, he's smart enough to take the arrow off his bowstring and return it to its quiver before entering the village.
Inside the village, he waits to see if the translators can secure some help. If Bokehn knows the headman here, maybe we can find out what is happening, why the lizardmen are so hostile.
There is a ripple and then a splash as a lizardman emerges from the water nearby. He clutches a large wooded cub and his body harness is decorated with shells. From his jaw hang long wattles of scaly flesh that give him a venerable appearance and a large scar runs across his jaw, showing broken peg-like teeth on one side in a permanent snarl. The other lizardfolk part deferentially as he approaches, dripping river water.
"I am Pooma. I speak your language." He squints at Bokehn. "Him I know. Why are you here?"
william just nod his head and add "The human settlement on the river no to far from was attacked and everyone killed."
Pooma steps forward and examines Bokehn's wounds. He hisses as he ruminates. "Stirge, you call them. Their bite carries disease." He straightens up. "Tell me what happened to your settlement, the people there."
As he does so there is a commotion as more figures emerge from the water. A blackscale lizard-warrior rises up from the water, shaking its head to flick away the water from its eyes. Two Cold Sun warriors are with it, though their colouration is different from those of the village, and finally a poisondusk follows accompanied by a black crocodile that curls about its feet. The diminutive lizardman immediately begins yammering and gesticulating.
trying to speak to Pooma before anything else happened: "I don't know what he said but Wait i'll answer your question elder. Well lets see we were coming yesterday in the river with our ship. Arriving at the human settlement we saw that it had been raided and rather destroyed. We Went to shore to investigate. We we barely there a minute when our party and those on the ship can under attack by the Poison Dusk warriors. Everyone got killed and only those you see managed to escape. As we escape into the jungle a few minutes after the first combat we came under attacked again but an other group of the Poison dusk along with Striges. Those who have survived made their way here since Bokehn was barely able to stand after that fight and this was the only place we could get help for him. They even killed a lizardfolk that was hired to help us with translate and act as a negotiator. Bokenh's group haven't done nothing but navigating the river and trading at a previous settlement on the river farther down. We did nothing else. really. Truth !"
Cole doesn't verbally respond to the leader or the new-comers. Though when the newcomers begin their yammering and gesticulating, the big warforged takes the two steps necessary to interpose himself between them and the unconscious Bokehn. His weapons remain stowed.
wouf, Wouf !
The poisondusk hisses at Pooma:
Nalverren remains silent, responding only to Pooma. The newcomers were obviously too agitated to reason with a smoothskin.
Rehil watches the lizardmen swarm out of the water. He doesn't like the look of the last ones and watches them closely, but lizardfolk are even harder to read than men.
Pooma turns to the poisondusk.
One of the foreign Cold Suns pipes up.
A rumble of discontent runs through the assemble lizardfolk villagers. Pooma looks up at the group. "Is this true? Have you been digging in our holy places?"
The group we are did not set food on any holy place nor did we do any digging. As i explain, Bokehn hired us a bunch of days ago and since then we traveled on the river from the human land. The only time we set food on land was a couple day hao in a human camp where we stayed for a few hours in order to unload the supplies we were carrying. We were about to do the same at the camp located a day from here on the river. But i have told you what happened since. Now it might be true that some other tribe of humans did do that horrible deeds. But not this tribe he says pointing at the group.
"Like there are many tribe of you, there are many different tribes of us. Don't hold us responsible."
Nalverren nods, having no need to add to what was said. When Pooma looks at him, he looks at Bokehn to remind Pooma of the time-sensitive task at hand.
Rehil stares as the lizardfolk speak incomprehensibly. It's almost a relief when Pooma asks if they've been digging in the holy places. But not quite a relief because even he can see how that might stir the lizardfolk to war.
Even with that risk, I wouldn't put it past House Tharashk to try. The shards are too valuable not to. There may be information here that could get me back into a better posting.
Portforged finally started to speak. At least we may have a common enemy with them.
"We did encounter a rather large group of poisendusks on the way here. They were...vicious."
Pooma begins to translate what Will and Wultram said back to the poisondusk. It listens for a little while but becomes impatient, cutting over the lizardfolk elder.
Pooma interrupts, seeming aghast. A murmuring immediately begins amongst the assembled villagers.
The poisondusk shifts uncomfortably, for a moment at a loss for words.
Cole cocks his head at the exchange, then looks over to the smaller warforged. "Portforged, what's going on?"