With the creatures swooping in and out of reach, Elia decided on a more subtle approach, plucking one of her wands out Elia opted for something a little more subtle, sending a dart of light flying at the closer of the two in an effort to dazzle it.
Lorelei shoots another icicle at one of the flying creatures.
Elia's firework careens into the injured flying creature, followed by Lorelei's icicle. Now heavily injured, it hisses and begins to fly away, up toward the top of the cliff. The second flies by Valdern, only to be to have its wing run through by his spear. Its attack is thrown off and it manages to weakly regain some altitude.
Not currently being harried Ebirah is able to line up a better shot at the attacking creatures.
Elia continued to harry the closer creature, sending another firework at it.
"Let the other one go," she suggested, "We can trace it back to its lair."
"Good idea."
Bhookaaj tries shooting the injured creature again, hoping to bring it down:
If the remaining reptile is still flying around them, Lorelei will shoot an icicle at it, if not, she will hold her actions so that they can follow the retreating flying reptile to it's nest.
Given that the rest of the party seems to be hoping to follow the fleeing creature, I'll put Bhookaaj's attack on the other one.
Bhookaaj's bolt finds its mark, along with Lorelei's icicle. Now also heavily injured, the second creature joins the other in its flight back up the cliff face.
Bhookaaj tries finishing off one of the creatures to improve the odds a bit more:
Figureing the creatures are going out of the limited range of her icicle, Lorelei pulls out her light crossbow and tries to shoot the last one to flee.
With no range weapon, Valdern study the cliff. "I'm not a good one when it come to climbing. How are you suggesting we get up there?"
As Bhookaaj's bolt flies just short of the fleeing creature, but Lorelei's strikes it straight in the back, and it falls to the ground with a dull thud.
Bhookaaj search the dead creature, in case there's anything interesting on it.
Lorelei scans the cliffside and tries to plot out a way to climb up it to follow the injured reptile to it's probably nesting place.
The cliffs stretch fairly far in either direction, making it extremely difficult to get around them without losing sight of the fleeing creature.
Lorelei will take some rope and a grappling hook out of her backpack and makes ready to climb up the cliff.
Lorelei manages to get a rope to the top of the cliff, and the party begins to climb. Noticing its pursuers, the flying creature remains in the air, flying wide circles above the cliffside. The party can also now see a group of vaguely humanoid creatures approaching from further down the coast, a few less than a dozen in number.
Lorelei peers at the creatures, trying to figure out what they may be as she pulls up the rope after the group so as to not make it easy for them to be followed.
As the humanoids near it becomes clear that they have fishlike features, but ones very different to the skum. These creatures wear clothing or light armor, and while the skum were an ugly green shade, these are a diverse array of colors one might see in real fish.
Seeing the strangers approaching, Bhookaaj says "They look like locathah. They're probably here for trade, not fighting."
"Well, I suppose the lone flying reptile won't make it far wounded as it is. We could climb back down and make contact with them before trying to find the creature's nest. It may be best to try and make friendly contact. With as many hostile things on this island, it sure couldn't hurt to make some friends. Plus they have some knowledge of what's been going on on this island and maybe they had contact with the missing expedition."
Valdern looks up and then down. Examining the cliff. "Yeah, I'd would prefer to head back down to a more comfortable height. All that climbing and chasing flying critters isn't my idea of fun." He walks over to Lorelei to assist in getting the rope ready.
"Some friendly contacts would be welcome," Elia said, "I'm just reluctant to put the chase on hold, however briefly, if there's a chance Soran is still alive." Now that she articulated the hope, it seemed a tad naive, given the passage of time and that he'd probably been snatched for food.
"Perhaps if a couple of us watch the flier from the clifftop while the others descend and parley?"
"I can stay here while someone else parlays. I'm not the best negotiator anyway."
Lorelei nods. "I'll head on back down and see if they are willing to talk then."
Lorelei will lower the rope back down and climb back to the beach and give the fishfolk a friendly wave and will stay where she is and let them approach her as she tries to look unthreatening.
Lorelei climbs back down the cliff, the locathah approach, slowly, with the gait of people unused to walking on land. A locathah in leather armor with a coloration resembling a goldfish steps forward and raises a hand in greeting.
"Hello! I am Koloshkora. Do you speak Azlanti?"
Lorelei responds in Azlanti: "Yes, I do. I am Lorelei"
Good sign, talking and seeming friendly for now "My friends and I are new to this land. I hope we are not trespassing on your territory?"
Ebirah stays up on the cliff with with Bhookaj, watching the others interact with the peaceful fishfolk.
"We don't really stake claims to territory, especially not on land. We came here several weeks ago, hoping to establish trade relations, but no one was here."
"Our ship arrived fairly recently, but we are beginning a settlement on the island. We would be more than happy to establish trade relations with you and your people. Perhaps we could arrange a meeting time for you to talk with our leader on the island about what we can offer each other?"
"And I was wondering, there was a previous ship of our people that had come to the island. Did you ever have any contact with them while they were here?"
"We saw them building a settlement, which is why we originally came to trade. When we arrived, however, the settlement was abandoned."
Koloshkora thinks for a moment. "I don't know for sure, but Helekhterie is the most likely culprit. She's a sea hag who's been organizing the more malevolent aquatic populations in the area into kidnapping and raiding parties and the like. According to them, she's going to bring back prophecy, or something like that."
"A Sea Hag? That doesn't sound good for us. Though having some idea of where the danger is coming from is the first step in making a dfense against it. Does she also happen to command any flying reptiles? My group and I are hunting down a couple that snatched a fisherman of ours."
"Yes, we heard you battling them. The chupacabras likely aren't intelligent enough to make allies like that, though."
"A wounded one got away from us and flew up over the cliff. We were just following it to finish it off. We would be happy to further discuss trade relations with you later on at our settlement."
Koloshkora nods.
"Sounds good. If it's not a problem, it would be easier to swim there, as we're pretty slow on land."
Koloshkora relays the conversation to the non-Azlanti-speaking locathah in her band, before they take to the sea.
On arriving at Talmandor's Bounty, a number of the colonists give the locathah suspicious glances. They seem to trust the group's judgement and ability, however, and do not interfere as they group reaches the government building where Ramona is.
Presumably Lorelei would tell the rest of the party what happened, although you do still need to decide what to do about the flying lizard.
The flying creature continues to circle high in the air, not traveling in any particular direction.
"I no expert on flying creature, but by the way it is acting, its lair should nearby since it is not going anywhere. We need to inspect the rest of the cliff."
Bhookaaj will start trying to climb up toward where the nest should be, after hearing Valdern's assessment
Operating under the theory that somebody probably ought to, Elia kept an eye on the flying creature while the others poked about the cliff face. If nothing else, it might start to look agitated if somebody was getting close to finding its lair.
Ebirah headed up after Bhookaj now that the rest of the group had rejoined them, and brought good news concerning the visitors.