Seeing Cassandra chase the grig and the fairy dragon breath out gas on Vance, Telmarni just happens to have a stern look on her face. And noticing how things are turning out, she shouts. She walks between Vance and Carinna. "We need to gain a hold of ourselves. Vance, please calm down. And Perlivash, please don't do that again." She looks towards Cassandra.
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Carinna laughs at the scene, got completely by surprise by Cassandra's behavior.
Looks like now that she revealed herself as a skinwalker she is letting her animal instincts to flourish... I'm pretty sure she is acting like a little cat...
At her words about the legend, pauses, thinking if it is true. "I've never heard of such thing... Mr. Perlivash, is that true? And you do not have to worry, Mr. Vance will not hurt you... though I'd keep him out of the prank list if I were you..."
Cassandra leaps through the air and manages to tackle the airborne grig. Somehow the grig avoids being crushed by the impact, and she wriggles and writhes as she tries to get away from Cassie.
"I don't know any song like that! That's just silly talk!" shouts Tyg-Titter-Tut as she pushes and beats on Cassie's arms with her tiny fists.
Perlivash holds his hands in front of his snout in an expression of some surprise. "Ooh! Please don't eat my friend!" he says. Then the faerie dragon takes to the air. Fluttering his wings rapidly, with a nervous expression, he says to Carinna, "I don't know if it's true or not, I've never heard of it before! It's not like we let bad biggins like bandits and hunters catch us!"
Tyg-Titter-Tut struggles a bit more, then realizes that she's not going anywhere. She crosses her arms and pouts while Cassie keeps her in a solid but not-quite-crushing grip.
Cassandra halts mid celebration when Telmarni yells at her. She looks at the struggling grig then at the others...and she gets the distinct impression she has made a terrible mistake. Her face turns a similar color to her hair. "OH. Oh I am so sorry," she says putting the offended fey back on the ground. Her hands hover close as if trying to find some way to make things right but eventually decides to place them behind her back. Less threatening. "I. I realize now that might have been just what the fey back home said to mess with us." Feeling utterly stupid and embarrassed she lowers her head and backs away. There had to be something she could do to make things right. "Oh," she exclaims as an idea comes to her. She takes her pack off and searches through the pockets. "Aha." She pulls a small box out of the large opening and hands it over to the grig. "Here. Just wind the metal part on the side a little."
Through all the drama she seems to have missed what happened between Perlivash and Vance.
"Yes, that is a good idea. But... Is it light enough for them to carry?" She mentions absentmindedly. "Anyway, it has a nice melody. Can we listen to it before we continue our exploration?" As she asks nicely as she glances to Cassandra.
I kinda wish she didn't give it as a forgiveness present. After all, I was the one that found it when we defeated the bandits. Telmarni thinks. She rubs her head and smiles slightly. "So... Where to next? I don't feel safe making camp next to a upset corpse."
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Knowing that Perlivash, and perhaps Tyg also, likes her, Carinna approached Cassandra and took the music box. She then sat on the ground and gestured for both faeries to join her, taking her hair of her shoulders to give them 'landing' space. She then winded it, making the delightful music embrace them all.
Once the music is over, Cassie addresses Telmarni's question. "I agree with you, Tel, even if I think Mr. Cadaver will not attack us. We could ride just a couple miles north to make camp and then continue following the river to the south tomorrow."
She then turns her attention once more to the two faeries. "I think you are both welcome to come along with us, Mr. Perlivash and Mr. Tyg, but could I ask you to not make pranks with us anymore? They were indeed funny but they could also be dangerous if we are suddenly attacked."
Valeska and Tzerny remain oddly quiet throughout the conversation, more interested in simply watching how everyone react.
Tyg-Titter-Tut is, as you might expect, very reluctant about Cassandra's sudden change of heart. Whether because she is forgiving by nature or because she realizes that it might be bad to have a conflict with Cassandra in front of all of Cassie's friends, she finally says, "Th... thank you? I... um... I like music."
The grig settles on a fallen tree branch and turns the music box a few times, listening to its thin strains.
Perlivash says with a flutter, "You were very understanding about the pranks. It was just in good fun. We never intended to hurt you, as you were not bad bigginses." He nods his head firmly and grins.
Tyg-Titter-Tut adds, "This music box is very pretty, but it's a bit large for me to carry. Could you... hold on to it?"
The faeries seem mollified, and Perlivash flutters about, getting a good look at everyone. He even buzzes Tzerny briefly, and the two eyeball each other for a few moments...
She then turns her attention once more to the two faeries. "I think you are both welcome to come along with us, Mr. Perlivash and Mr. Tyg, but could I ask you to not make pranks with us anymore? They were indeed funny but they could also be dangerous if we are suddenly attacked."
"Especially tampering with our water," Cassadnra says seriously. It seemed to her that there was a temporary truce with the grig but Cassandra still felt bad for letting old habits get the better of her. But she did get to keep the music box. "Finding one of your jokes at a bad time could spell disaster. Are there more, um, "bad bigginses", besides the camp that was north west of here? We keep hearing this name Stag Lord."
"I'm not sure," says Perlivash, curling one claw into a thinking position. "Mostly we live in the forest. Coming this far was quite an adventure! But it seemed like you were all pretty good at staying safe."
Tyg adds, "There is one hunter who set traps all through the western part of the forest. No care whatsoever to the harm that his traps might do to anyone, spread all around!
"Oooh!" says Perlivash, straightening up. "And there is that spooky old temple!"
"No bad people there though," says Tyg. "Just the angry bear."
Perlivash nods and settles back down. "Usually the bad folks come from the south, along the river."
"Yes," says Tyg. "There was the one camp in the forest by the river crossing, but you sure cleaned them up."
"Oh! The hot springs northwest of the old ruined temple! Those are fun," says Perlivash.
Tyg wrinkles her tiny nose. "They smell bad, and those huge frogs tried to eat me."
Perlivash says, "Well to a frog you look like a grasshopper."
Tyg frowns and sticks out her tongue at the faerie dragon.
As the fey creatures describe things around the forest, Cassandra goes into a flurry. She puts her bag down and fumbles momentarily for her journal in a pouch on her belt. She begins to furiously scribble in it, taking notes on what the fey say and eventually marking her tiny map. "Hatch. The map," she says waving at him to get his attention. His was far more detailed. Well this makes things far easier.
Hatch fumbles for a moment, then grabs the maps and unrolls them. "You're right! I didn't even think of it," he says eagerly. He starts making notes.
Perlivash flutters over by Hatch's shoulder and, hovering in the air, starts pointing at locations off to the west where you haven't explored yet.
Tzerny eyes the newcomers suspiciously, but seems to be content to stay silent. In fact, he probably hasn't said a word all day. Very much unlike him.
Cassandra looks up and out over the river as if just remembering something. "Why are we still standing next to the river?" She starts moving the others away from their vengeful undead neighbor in case he should think their presence annoying. Then again, after chasing the grig about for a few minutes, that was probably a moot point.
Tyg gives a small shrug. Perlivash says, "I don't really know about human gods. Just a ruined rocky building with a statue and an angry bear!"
"That's what I was I was thinking too," Cassandra says, double checking her work. Satisfied, she snaps the journal shut. She then double checks the provisions, mentally calculating how long they had. 4 days with some to spare, which meant 2 more days of exploration most likely. They were pretty far from Oleg's now. Then she remembered the fey. What did they eat? It wouldn't be much if they ate rations. How long were they going to tag along? Vance seemed to be giving them the stink eye. They didn't need more tension after the last few days. "We can explore two more days safely before we have to head back for more supplies. Less depending on what you guys eat," she says looking at the fairy dragon and grig.
"Snacks, mostly," says Perlivash, dropping to the ground and rolling onto his back lazily.
Tyg says, "But we should go home! We live in the forest. Coming out this far was a big risk."
Perlivash smiles and rubs his back up and down on the ground and says, "It was worth it though!"
Tyg finishes, "We should really go home. It's probably not very safe for us to stay out here."
Perlivash pops back up onto his feet and waves. "But you can come visit us any time in the woods!"
Cassandra waves away the fairy folk as well. Happy they left on a slightly good note. She turns back to the maps as the consider the last part of their journey. "That's what I was thinking. I explored the area east of the woods here the first day and would like to fill in the gaps."
Before they leave, Perlivash flutters over by Cassandra and points to your maps. "We're usually over here. You walked right by us once!" he says.
Your next day starts with more uneventful exploration. You clear off the area that Cassandra talked about, a rocky, craggy area of hills with lots of small cliffs. At one nasty crag, Cassandra finds a narrow crack hidden behind overgrown thornbushes that goes down a short distance into the hill. Since there are no unusual scents, the group sends a few light spells on pebbles down inside. The crack is a sharply sloping passage, about 5' wide, that goes down 20' before it ends in a dry cave about 30' in diameter.
There are no signs of habitation in the cave, though it seems that it was carved out (not natural). Nobody is sure why it's abandoned. Maybe it was a temporary bolt-hole for bandits at some point? Regardless, there are no signs of any buried goods, no leftover tools or supplies, not even any tracks. Whoever dug this hole is long, long gone.
Cassandra peers down into the hole, giving it a few good sniffs. "It opens up at the bottom." She didn't smell anything living or unnatural so hopefully it wasn't occupied. She was definitely going to find out if she was wrong. From her backpack she produces a grappling hook and rope and ties them together. She then drives the hook as far as it will go in some solid dirt. "Someone step on that please." When someone obliges she tosses the rope down the hole and checks again for movement of sound. When mostly sure nothing is down there, she begins to slowly repel in. Immediate thoughts are that this could be used for anything from a hidden stash to a hidden base if things got really bad in the far future. If nothing else, it was good to know of such a well hidden cave.
With everything said and done, Telmarni smiles and waves as they leave. She mounts Zypher and is ready to go.
Looking down the cave as Cassandra climbs down, she can't help but to wonder what it could have been. Tilting her head, Telmarni looks around before looking back down into the cave. "Cassie, would you like me to come down there too? It looks like this place has been here a while though."
"No. Just a hole," Cassandra calls up the shaft. Satisfied there is nothing important down here she climbs back up. "That could be useful. Good place to hide if things get bad. Can't imagine why someone dug this out though."
"I chased a grig. You're sane...er."
"Eh... Alright..." Telmarni quietly states about people's sanity. It isn't her place to question such things.
Looking around and that there are no other caves, frowns frowns slightly. "Right. We should move on, if there is nothing else here. Cassie, you said that we are getting low on rations, right?" She pauses a bit. "So, shall we go?"
Telmarni looks down the shaft before heading to the horses. She looks a bit disappointed that it was empty.
You continue your investigation, get some rest, and move on further south the next day .
In the next day of exploring you come across a hill with a huge sycamore tree on it. This tree is even larger than the lone oak where you found the buried treasure -- a hundred feet high and dominating a hillside; it is visible for miles, making an excellent landmark.
As you explore the craggy lands around the tree you find some scant evidence of hunter-gatherer activity in the area, and Cassandra, following her nose, even finds occasional tracks of small humanoids -- not reptilian clawed feet like kobolds, but still barefooted. Somewhat reminiscent of halflings, a bit, but with a different gait, splayed out like they are bowlegged.
The massive sycamore on the hill is sickly and has drooping branches and large, heavy roots that poke out through the hillsides. As you check the area, you note that there is a large hollow in the hillside under some of the roots of the tree, perhaps four and a half feet high -- it looks like it was a natural hole that was further excavated.
Though she was used to powerful scents after years of smelling things others couldn't, sometimes she regretted it. This time it was when she took a whiff of the hole near the base of the giant tree. "Ugh. Not sure what lives here but it smells awful. Smell something like that spider too," she says cringing. "Never seen these tracks either. Like halfling's but walking weird." Cassandra tries to align her feet to the tracks and takes a few steps. She looks like someone that had been on a horse all day. She has never ridden a horse so she doesn't know the significance of the odd gait.
Your best guess is that they are some kind of small humanoid, but not one of the more common kinds -- not kobolds, not goblins.
Cassandra snaps her fingers, a thought popping into her head. "Mites. I wonder if this is the mite's home?" She couldn't believe it took that long to figure it out. They were the reason she bought cold iron arrows. That gave her another dilemma though go in or draw them out. They didn't have the food to wait them out so going in seemed the best route. But now diplomacy or attack? She moves to the hole near the roots. A tight squeeze but possible. Made for smaller creatures so that was obvious. She looks up, thinking about what to do. Then her eyes alight on that annoying little bird near Valeska. "This is going to be a tight fit for all of us. Terrible position to get caught in a trap. If there were only someone here smaller enough to fit through and still maneuver around," she says eyeing Tzerny.
The raven squawks unhappily and says, "I can't see in total darkness, but I'll take a little peek." The bird flutters over to the hole and then disappears into it.
There's a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, during which Valeska looks a bit unhappy. Likely she is picking up empathic vibrations from her familiar, who is in a spooky place.
Tzerny finally reappears and says, "Looks like a tunnel going down -- probably you could hang on the edge and drop to the bottom, but you would want to lower a rope so you could climb back up! So not very far. Also lots of roots from the tree, you could probably climb them with your... hands. Then it splits into a tunnel going two directions, a little sloping down each way. Very pungent smell, sounds like some movement and cackling and babbling. I didn't see anyone but I definitely heard them scrabbling around. I could probably see something if I brought a light, but they'd see me too!"
Telmarni waits patiently while Valeska's familiar heads under the tree. She frowns, and looks around, making sure nothing is coming close to them over the open ground.
When Tzerny returns from below the tree, Telmarni listens closely to what was found. Sighing, she steps forward. "If we want to investigate further, looks like people with Dark Vision will have to head in first." Her shoulder's twitch a bit, and to a lesser extent, her wings, after finishing her sentence. "I do not relish going down there though."
"Me neither," Cassandra agrees. "We're at an extreme disadvantage down there." Cassandra is silent for a moment before deciding on something with a nod of her head. "Tie a rope. I'll see what we are dealing with. If it comes to a fight I'd rather it was up here." She straddles the hole and prepares to drop. "If I'm not back in five minutes please come save me," she adds. Just before dropping in, Cassandra shifts, becoming wolf-like in appearance and draws her axe. Down in the hole, she looks left and right to make sure the cost is clear. She continues to scan until the end of a rope drops in, then picks a direction and heads off to scout.
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"Well... Cassandra mentioned Mites, right? Perhaps she is right. I do not now much about them so if one of you knows about them, could you tell me more? If we indeed need to fight them, any information will be helpful." She thinks for a while and then completes. "Oh, and if they are somehow fond of bugs and spiders, please, lie to me, ok?" Nevertheless, Carinna readied herself, drawing her sword.
Now, I will go in there despite anything if she calls for help, even if it is a scary and hairy spider...
Your investigation into the tunnel is cramped and covered in insects. Cassandra discovers that, as Tzerny said, the narrow passage only drops about 10', and there are tree roots everywhere -- even a weak climber could easily haul herself out, should the need arise. The tunnel drops into an intersecting junction below, which runs off in two directions.
Basically, think of a slightly bent and sagging tunnel, which has a hole in the top, which goes up to a tube that exist at the base of the tree.
The tunnel that crosses below the drop is not very high, just under five feet in height. You will have to stoop over if you want to traverse it. (This will impose a -2 penalty on attack rolls.)
Cassandra sneaks down the narrow passage and into a root chamber below. With her darkvision, she sees a small humanoid figure with ragged clothes, large squinting eyes, and bowed legs. It stands amidst several enormous centipedes -- easily the size of mastiffs -- that wave their tentacles/feelers/whatever in the air and then lunge forward to eat from a bowl of foul-smelling mash that the humanoid provides. It (the humaoid) makes hissing and cooing noises, as if treating the centipedes like pets.
For the moment, Cassandra's passage into the room seems unnoticed.
This room is still small and low-ceilinged, so the -2 attack penalty continues to apply here.
"Um... Lemme think." As Telmarni replies. She puts a hand on her chin as she ponders what a "mite" is.