Iagon's smile vanishes, and he gives Ashilia a pained look. I do apologize, but duty calls. I'll be back, I promise! He rushes away, heading towards Turante's call at full sprint.
As soon as the giant bees(?) make their appearance, Túrante moves to give Liamae protection. She steps up slightly ahead and diagonal of Liamae, giving the archer an unobstructed line of fire, but keeping her sword ready in case one of the fliers decides to get close.
“Wait! What is it?!” Ashilia looks up from where he’s digging up a potatoe bush. With his shovel in hand he takes off running after Iagon.
Kytes runs to the nearest tower which flanks the southern gate. Reaching the door he sees that a ladder runs up one wall to the raised perimeter platform above. As he grabs on to a rung, he hears a commotion just outside. Glancing out the door he sees the figures of Iagon and Master Ashilia running by.
“Rilli,” croaks Rilli, lowering the fish a bit despondently. The next thing you know, he’s running alongside you, spear in hand, the tail of the fish sticking out of his mouth. Surprisingly, the small frog-man is able to keep up with you stride for stride.
Up ahead, you see the figures of Iagon and Master Ashilia (possibly Kytes) exiting the trading post at full speed.
Iagon turns the corner just in time to see Liamae and Turante reach the road at edge of the woods. As he runs, he sees Turante move forward as Liamae looses an arrow at something further down the road and out of his vision.
Reaching their location, he and Ashilia are confronted with the sight of a very out of breath Hans running down the road towards them. Chasing him are three giant bugs of some sort Hans is holding a heavy crossbow in his arms and seems to be covered in some very putrid substance. He runs passed Turante and when he reaches Liamae he stops and begins loading his crossbow.
“Ye gotta help me!” He yells in a panic, “They took me boy!”
Hurrying as much as possible, Kytes follows along behind Ashilia and Iagon, finding the elves already outside the walls, preparing to fight some kind of flying bug. Hans relates that the bugs have taken his son, Linus.
Liamae shoots the wounded bug again!
Attai smiles as the amphibiman keeps pace. Drawing his heavy crossbow, the sylph wonders what new calamity has struck. He isn't quite prepared for
"Giant bees?!?"
Attai exerts himself to a sprint to close the gap, coming up on Liamae and Turante with Hans hoarsely saying something Attai doesn't quite catch.
Iagon swallows back a lump in his throat that appears at the sight of the creatures. Giant insects...great. He continues on to get into the fray, and puts a hand out to the side to try and keep Ashilia from rushing headlong into the range of the creatures.
Liamae looses another arrow at her target and hits again, this time more substantially. That bug is now falling behind, struggling under its injuries.
The lead bug meets Turante and the elven princess is ready, cutting into its black chiton with her blade.
As Iagon reaches out to hold Master Ashilia back, the gnome begins chanting and his eyes flash green. He returns Iagon's touch, and Iagon feels his skin harden and darken, until it looks almost like tree bark.
Liamae tries to finish off the wounded bug with a third arrow!
Iagon looks down at his skin in awe, and then turns the look to Ashilia. He slams his mouth shut, then grins widely and nods. Many thanks, master gardener.
He then turns from the obviously capable companion and rushes towards the fray, gathering his strength as he does.
The ranger-princess slashes again at the lead bug, hoping to wound it enough to drive it off.
Liamae hits a third time and the giant bug drops from the air. It's wings buzz and legs twitch as it struggles against death.
The lead bug quickly rises just enough to avoid Turante's blade, and Iagon's blast likewise misses the now furthest bug.
Turante can see the bug she is facing down, large, spherical red eyes flash with a fiery light before it swoops down at her, pincer like mandibles dripping with sickly saliva.
Turante quickly raises her shield and blocks the attack.
The second bug rises higher in the air and buzzes by Turante to dive bomb Iagon.
It misses completely.
Hans finishes loading his crossbow and mutters under his breath as he lets a bolt fly at the bug bothering Turante, "Gods damned filthy vermin."
Fwoosh! the bolt flies errantly through the air.
Kytes, Attai, and Rilli all show up at the scene of battle, ready and rearing to go.
Liamae thrusts her gloved hand out firing a ray of acid at the bug attacking Iagon. Unfortunately, she misses!
After Liamae's ray of acid goes astray, Ashilia gently touches her, his eyes flashing green again, "You'll do better next time, lass."
Rilli dashes quickly forward and thrusts his spear upward at the big bug bugging Iagon.
His spear plunges into the bug's thorax, thick green ichor oozes from the wound.
Hearing that Linus is in trouble somewhere, but not seeing him accounted for, Kytes rushes into the fight without hesitation. He charges across the open ground towards the bug that is ni combat with Turante, swinging his favored weapon as he nears it.
Iagon looks to his left and right, thankful for the assist from his companions. With his hardened skin, he whirls wood chips about him and flings them at the creature once again.
Attai rushes by Rilli and shoots the bug near his friends.
Move Action: Move to north east of Rilli.
Standard Action: Shoot heavy crossbow.
[+1 BAB, + 2 Dex, -4 into melee]
Kytes charges forth and joins Turante at her side. His sword cuts deep into the bug's chitin and gooey insides. The bug falls from the air, no longer able to fly, yet it's eyes still flash with fiery wrath.
Turante tries to add to the hurt and put the creature down, but the bug still seems nimble on its six legs.
Iagon gathers wooden particulate to blast the other bug from the sky, but his opponent is close, too close, and he leaves himself open for attack.
The bug misses, but the sudden attack is enough to throw Iagon off, and his blast also goes astray.
These bugs are very agile in the air, and as it serves one way to dodge Iagon's blast, it quickly swerves in the other direction to dodge Attai's bolt.
The bugs are focused on their original targets, and slavering mandibles snap at Turante and Iagon.
One snips at Iagon, just hard enough to bite through his toughened skin. The bug's saliva causes a burning sensation on Iagon's arm, but it soon fades.
Hans loads another bolt into his crossbow and cranks the bowstring back into place. He shouts out, "Oy! Master Ashilia, how 'bout ye use summa yer magic on me!"
Liamae moves to get a clear shot on the bug attacking Iagon and tries to fire another energy ray at it.
Even with Ashilia's guiding touch, the bug is just able to move out of the way of Liamae's ray.
Ashilia grumbles something beneath his breath and acquiesces to Hans' demand. He moves over to the large man and touches him, granting him the same guidance he just offered Liamae.
Rilli plants his spear in the ground and uses it as leverage to lift his small body in the air, where he swiftly kicks at the big bug with both legs.
He gets a good kick in, hitting the bug in the head. The bug drops to the ground, stunned.
The ranger makes a cut at the perfect time, bringing another cut down on her flying foe.
Turante brings her blade down on the injured bug, cutting clean through its iridescent black thorax. Thick green ichor spills to the ground.
Acknowledging Turante's prowess with a nod, Kytes spins and steps back over to where the stunned bug lays on the ground, flanking with the frog-man, he strikes trying to the end the threat quickly, so they can see what happened to Linus.
"These people are under my protection and the shield of Iomedae!" he shouts at the insect. "You shall not harm them, or suffer the consquences!"
Just as Turante puts down one bug, Kytes quickly does the other, although a bit more righteously. The fiery light of their bulbous red eyes dies out, and as the thick green ichor spills from their body cavities, the familiar sulfurous scent that accompanied the maggot permeates the air.
Hans holds his nose shut and addresses everyone, "Ugh, nasty beasts. Thank the Gods fer the lot of ye. But ye gotta help me. They took me boy, out there in the woods!"
"Where is he? Who has him?" asks Kytes, hurriedly. He is anxious to have the young boy back safely.
"Do you smell that? Like the maggot. Maybe these are the developed versions of those larvae? Either they have a life cycle that relies on smelly compounds, or they are both some kind of summoned fiend."
Turante is pretty confident in her analysis of the dead bugs. Fiendish giant maggots only logically grow into fiendish giant flies. How these things came about is beyond her at the moment, but definitely not in a naturally occurring way.
Hans is momentarily seized by panic, his face is dripping in sweat. He turns wide-eyed to Kytes, "Iunno what they were. Like some sort o' nasty vermin, like rats, or 'possums, mangy things, but they stood upright about yay high..." he gestures with a free hand to about his knees, "An' they spoke some weird language. We was out there gatherin' wood fer the traps, ye know, an' we must've stepped into a nest of these bugs, 'cause next thing I knew, we're being attacked. I was fightin' 'em off, an' then these talkin' critters appear, an'... an'..."
He begins to choke and gag as he recalls the incident, "...They vomited... all o'er me. Next thing I knew they grabbed me boy an' ran off in the woods. That's when I called for help an' ran outta there fast I could."
Liamae adjusts her spectacles as she casts a spell, granting herself heightened awareness. "There's no time to waste! We have to rescue Linus!"
Attai smiles grimly as Turante and Kytes perform admirably. He listens intenyly to the rambling Hans.
"Vomiting possum-rat...men. Sounds nasty. "
Attai nods to Liamae as he loads a new bolt into his heavy crossbow.
"Yes, let us make haste!"
Iagon brightens as he remembers hearing of the little creatures. Grimples!
Then, his expression sours as he recalls the nature of the nasty little beasts.
Though I don't know what they'd want with Linus...no matter, let's make haste!
At the word ‘grimples’, Master Ashilia’s shoulders sag. He looks down at the shovel in his hands, and after a moment, his grip tightens, and he raises his head with a determined look in his eyes. “I’m going with you. Hans, show us the spot where they took him.”
Hans nods, and although he’s out of breath already, leads everyone down the road at a brisk jog to the spot Linus was abducted.
Kytes has not heard of Grimples before, but he'd fight off a swarm of black dragons if it meant freeing the little boy. He stomps along with the others through the brush, ready for nearly anything.
Liamae searches the area for anything that might help them track down Linus. If she finds an object belonging to him, she will use object reading on it.
Attai also scans the ground, unused to the wilds he is unsure what he is looking for.
Hans takes leads everyone down the road and off a few yards into the trees. Liamae finds a stack of small logs and heavy branches Hans and Linus had been gathering. Next to the stack is a hatchet. Holding onto the hatchet for a minute, Liamae has a sudden flash of vision, the image of the hatchet being dropped as Linus was grabbed by three short, mangey looking humanoid rodent people and an overwhelming feeling of being frightened.
As she does this, Attai spots something else. A small rock with a bit of blood on it. Handing it to Liamae, she has another vision of one of the grimple creatures picking the rock up near what must be their nest. She sees a large dead tree which has been slightly upturned so that the roots have become partially exposed; a tunnel has been excavated beneath the tree. She then has the vision of the grimple hurling the rock at Hans.
If she happens to look at Hans afterwards, she'd notice a gash above his right eye and a bruise forming on the side of his face.
Liamae describes the dead tree. "That must be their lair. Hans, do you know where that is?"
While they are waiting for the visions of Liamae to direct them, Kytes whistles shrilly for Eir to return to him. He hands the raptor a tasty morsel when she alights on his shoulder once again.
Hans scratches the back of his head, “Haven’t spent much time ‘splorin’ these woods, I’m afraid.”
Ashilia then makes a series of hand gestures and chants something beneath his breath. His eyes glow green again as he begins whistling up in the direction of the trees. After a moment, a bird somewhere within range answers back. Then another, and another.
Ashilia motions forward, “This way. Hurry.”
Iagon wonders again at the capabilities of his fellow gardener as he rushes to follow. An odd thought came to him then. Wonder what he thinks of my power ripping up the plantlife...may have to be a bit more gentle about that in the future...sustainable woods and all...
He shakes his head to banish the thoughts, inwardly cursing his musings. Same old thing...get nervous and you lose focus. Get it together Iagon.
Liamae nocks another arrow in her bow as she follows Ashilia.
Túrante keeps her sword handy as she likewise following along, trusting the lead of her companions.
Attai's eyebrows lift slightly as Ashilia summons avian aid. The sylph keeps pace with the others, motioning his amphibian friend to follow.
"Rilli!"
Rilli keeps his mouth shut. It seems he's still using it to hold onto that fish.
Ashilia follows the twittering of the birds and leads the group deeper into the woods in a mostly southeasterly direction. After about half an hour of trekking through the heavy undergrowth, the glow in his eyes fades and he informs you he's not longer able to speak with the birds.
However, with a bit of scouting, Liamae spots the tree from her vision just a short distance away. As the group approaches, Attai notices some creatures at the base of the uprooted tree. Three dog-sized rodents are guarding the entrance, one slightly bigger than the others. They don't seem to have caught on to your presence just yet.
Attai crouches and sights one down his heavy crossbow. He whispers to the group.
"I have a true strike spell for one shot, and a bless for us generally. What else do we have?"
"My magic's tied up in mage armor."
"I prefer a frontal assault to some kind of base skulduggery," replies Kytes with a crooked eyebrow. He readies his longsword to leap among the beasts, with a plan to scatter or slay them as heroically as possible.
"I could try to hypnotize them with a spell. Failing that, I can scorch them all with flames to soften them up for the rest of you."