Loges studies her with Detect Magic.
Loges studies her with Detect Magic.
Nothing about the woman seems magical to Loges, although she does seem to be made nervous by the wizard's strange words and gesture ().
"Does she think she is a dog? She seems to be friendly." With that, Tamru moves calmy forward, his gentle smile still on his face and reaches a hand carefully forward to pat her on the head.
The masked woman shrinks back a bit as Tamru approaches, but doesn't make any overt hostile gestures. She "sniffs" his hand as he reaches out to her and then lets the priest scratch her head, wiggling her "tail" in appreciation.
"Ah... see, you are a friend," Tamru says in gentle tones, without looking away from the woman as he continues scratching. "There is beauty in many things, even in those we do not understand. Do you want to come with us, perhaps?" His gentle tone combined with his lilting accent do much to diminish his large armored form and the heavy polearm in his other hand.
”Wha-?” Timbur starts. He really doesn’t know what to say and simply stares at the woman with a mix of confusion and horror.
Loges' expression mirrors Timburs...
The masked woman does not seem to react to Tamru's words, but more to his gentle manner. She seems to want to keep her distance from the group, although she now has taken a bit of a shine to the servant of Shelyn.
Tamru turns calmy and slowly toward his companions and speaks in the same gentle tone. "Shelyn knows what happened to her, but she is not our enemy. Try not to scare her away, yes? Perhaps if she comes to trust us, we can learn from her." Tamru's gentle smile exudes calmness.
And maybe give her a bath. There is beauty hidden beneath the dirt and grime.
”Or catch fleas,” Timbur mutters but he has no desire to get close enough to this pitiful wretch to scare her away.
"Maybe she has gone mad in this place. If I were forced to spend my life in this dark tomb with my face hidden behind a mask, I might decide it is easier to become a dog myself." The half-orc leads the way down the stairs, if the others are ready to go.
When he looks down into the darkness, he hesitates for a moment and turns to Loges. "There is no magic down there that will make me think I'm a dog, is there? Or a cantaloupe?" Horek grins at the joke, but there is concern in his voice.
Bolgar looks at Tamru askance.
"How much can you learn from a woman who can only say 'woof woof?' If you really want to befriend her, give her something to eat."
"There is no magic down there that will make me think I'm a dog, is there? Or a cantaloupe?"
"I suppose it might be possible to put a spell on someone to make them think they are a dog... there is a common spell that makes a person think the one who cast it is their best friend, despite all evidence to the contrary. It could be a kind of curse perhaps."
"Or perhaps the spell merely forces someone to act like a dog?"
Bolgar turns to the dog-woman.
"Can you understand me? Bark twice for yes."
Bolgar repeats the phrase in Kelish in case the woman doesn't understand the common tongue.
Zuberi looks at the dogwoman leerily quite happy to let wizards and holy men unravel whatever mysteries lay around her and not contract whatever curse lay upon her.
Tollo backs away from the dog woman slowly, getting behind the rest of his companions that aren't so eager to be bitten by a crazy person.
"That explains the mouse lady, I guess..."
Bolgar turns to the dog-woman.
"Can you understand me? Bark twice for yes."
Bolgar repeats the phrase in Kelish in case the woman doesn't understand the common tongue.
The woman is happy to sit in the shadows at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at you with vacant curiosity. When she hears the dwarf's words, however, her head snaps to him and she sits up, lifting up her arms from the ground and barks twice. She then walks over to Tamru and nuzzles his leg.
"Well, what do you know. She can still understand words, she just can't speak. Or... act like a person."
Bolgar looks at the others.
"So who wants to play 20 questions with the dog lady?" Bolgar asks.
Tamru happily pets the dog-woman while they discuss what to do, his tone calm and gentle as before. "I do not speak that language, but perhaps we should ask her if she has any friends, yes? Maybe she could lead us to them?"
Tollo shakes his head.
"Yeah, we really need more crazy people around here. If there's one resource that was in short supply, it was insanity."
The halfling blanches a bit as a thought occurs to him.
"... she doesn't have some kinda weird disease brought on by beetle or gecko meat, right? Right?!"
Loges gets a real serious face.
Tollo, you may be on to something!
The youth winks at Timbur.
"Let's check out the rest of this level before delving deeper down those stairs." He gives a suspicious look at their new companion.
I agree. Tamru, you are in charge of...our charge, apparently.
Loges resumes his exploring duties.
Tollo gives the woman a wide berth, muttering to himself about how he refuses to be a rat- a snake maybe, but not a rat.
Horek will follow the others, guarding the rear of the party formation - especially wary of the woman/dog if it doesn't immediately follow after Tamru.
With a shrug and a gentle smile, Tamru follows along with the others, resting a hand on his new companion, if she lets him.
Bolgar shrugs.
"Let me know if you want me to translate anything for your... dog," Bolgar tells Tamru.
"Let's keep following this corridor and see where it goes."
Leaving the staircase with the wolf mask woman in tow, you continue down the corridor. The passageway turns to the right () and dead-ends in a door heading eastward. Tollo and Loges quickly get to work on the door blocking your progress, checking it for traps and other oddities.
The masked woman seems comfortable next to Tamru, but seems quite spooked by everyone else, especially Horek. When he approaches too closely, she begins to let out a lupine whine and tries to hide behind the Shelynite.
Two forms appear next to Horek from behind the party out of the darkness. They look to be some kind of grey-green giant weasels or ferrets with glowing red eyes. One bites the half-orc, nearly knocking him down in the process and looks about to drag him off. ()
"Giant Ferrets!" Bolgar shouts. He turns his back on the door and faces the Ferrets, and he hurls his warhammer toward them!
After striking, the hammer miraculously returns to Bolgar's hand.
Loges touches Horek.
Loges touches Horek.
Having heard the ferret/weasels creeping up, Bolgar has enough time to ready his weapon. He concentrates momentarily, and the weapon flies from his grasp, striking the creature in the midsection. The force of the blow crumples its midsection, and it cries out in pain.()
Loges moves up to provide an arcane blessing to Horek.
The wounded weasel/ferret lets go of Horek and slinks away around the corner and out of sight in obvious pain. ()
The second weasel/ferret tries to bite Horek, but seems distracted by everyone else, and fails to connect. It seems to decide it is overmatched, and slinks away into the darkness. ()
Hearing the disturbance, Tollo readies his crossbow and rushes toward the rear of the party.
Tamru frowns at the at the hostility from the creatures. They had been doing so well at making friends lately.
Food must be scarce for them to hunt such a large group.
The rotund garundi steps gently up to Horek and offers the blessing of Shelyn in the form of a chanted spell. With a touch, the half-orc's wounds stitch themselves together.
"They are just hungry, Horek. Let them be, yes?"
Zuberi will move up with his greatsword and attempt to bring it down on these curiously large weasel.
Timbur moves to put himself between Loges and danger, but if they’re retreating, he doesn’t follow.
The half-orc is surprised at the sudden attack by the over-sized weasels, and before he even gets the chance to get his bearings, Horek is wounded, then healed and the creatures quickly retreat before he is even able to bring his weapon to bear. He is vaguely aware that Tamru doesn't want him to pursue, but the half-orc roars out as he gives chase, using his darkvision to see as he moves away from the light. "They might do this again, we take them down now!" In truth, Horek is angered at the pain inflicted upon by the razor-sharp teeth of the aggressive and very large rodents and he wants a little payback. Also, there's the fact that they have meat on their bones. Meat that the adventurers could cook up in order to survive.
When he catches up, he slashes at the one that is unwounded.
Bolgar follows behind the others, his little legs not as long as these ridiculously tall humans and half-orcs.
"I'm with you, just hang on!"
Loges (frustratingly peeking from behind Timbur) heaves his light candle toward the darkened area where the weasels retreated.
That's disappointing!, comes an embarrassed moan (gratefully!) from behind Timbur.
"DON'T LET THE FOOD GET AWAY!", Tollo hisses.
The fighters of the group makes short work of the weasels, killing them both in a few strokes of their powerful weapons.
The animals seem to be quite large at nearly five feet in length including the tail with wicked teeth. They seem to be suffering from some form of albinism, as their fur is white and they have red eyes.
Horek nudges the bodies of the weasels with a boot. "Good pelt. Maybe it can be salvaged along with the meat. Come, let's get these to camp and then return." If one of the others is willing, the half-orc will scoop up one of the creatures and carry it back across his shoulders the way they came.
Timbur picks up the other and carries it back with Horek.