Mum mutters - repeating a few of the unintelligible sounds.. as if trying to work out what the savage had said...
"Hmm. Not too sure.. hard to understand this one. Said he fears the Devil of the Red mountain though." She shrugs. "Other than that bits and pieces I can't quite grasp."
"DO they have boats?" Lwdrak asks, looking at Estietre.
"What should we do once we're done questioning him?" Dereje asks the others as the interrogation continues. "We barely have the resources to take care of ourselves, let alone a prisoner. And yet, we cannot just murder him in cold blood."
Mum turns to the captive, and asks in Infernal...
"Kavik... does your tribe have boats?"
In response to Dereje, she sheepishly suggests "May be foolish, but... can we .. let him go, and follow his tracks to find their camp?"
She shrugs "I don't know... you're right.. we can't just kill him."
She shrugs "I don't know... you're right.. we can't just kill him."
Lawdrak looks up, a little puzzled. "We can't? It's the fate he had planned for us. And at least we won't be eating him. Well, most of us, " he adds, patting Sharpmaw's muzzle.
"Why does everyone keep assuming they wanted to eat us?" Adara shakes her head, unnerved at the notion of cannibalism. "It's an island...if they only eat people, they'd run out pretty quick! It just doesn't make sense to assume that..."
Adara sighs as she considers the question to the savage's fate. "Perhaps we simply leave him trussed up here. Those others that ran off will likely return. Especially since I imagine he will begin caterwauling again as soon as we are out of sight."
Hana points at the trap. "Not for rabbits." She shrugs. "People may simply be a delicacy."
Adara snorts and also gestures to the trap emphatically. "That still doesn't prove they eat people! Just that they have humanoid enemies of some kind. Perhaps there are more tribes of savages then just one, and they fight! It certainly wouldn't be that surprising given the whole of humanoid history."
Adara sighs. "Regardless...I still can't stomach the notion of killing a helpless prisoner. I say we leave him here for his friends, and we very quickly return to our own camp in order to warn the others and find a more defensible location in case of future hostility with the Prune's Fangs or whatever they're calling themselves."
"If they just have humanoid enemies then they would use killing traps like spiked pits," says Hana evenly. "You capture if you want fresh meat."
"Or if you are not completely evil and without morals."
Adara really has more faith in humanoidity than Hana apparently. Though she does cast a doubtful eye on their captive.
"Regardless of whether or not they planned on eating us..." Dereje interjects, attempting to move the conversation away from the uncomfortable topic of cannibalism. He looks to Lawdrak, continuing in a reproachful tone. "Morality is all that differentiates us from savages and wild beasts. If we are ever to return to society, we cannot allow this place to lower ourselves.
"That being said, if we are not going to let this one loose, then leaving him here might be our best option. I presume that his fellows will collect him in time. We should warn our camp as Adara suggested. It does not strike me as likely that these people know where we came from, but it is only a matter of time before they find out that there are more of us."
"At least give him a thump on the head before we go...I'll try to cover our tracks. They'll find us eventually, but no need to make it easy."
Hana obligingly gives him a good solid jarring of the cranium.
Adara finds herself a growing ever more concerned for the fate of their campers. She presses the others for haste even into the night.
Hana tries to keep a watch to the rear as the group proceeds back to camp, watching to see if they're followed.
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The party makes haste in returning to their primary camp, leaving the savage bound and unconscious at the ambush site.
Lawdrak does an admirable job obscuring the party's trail, indeed it would take an accomplished tracker to follow your most recent trail back to camp.
The journey in tiring as you press on well into the night, the last quarter of the trip is rather slow due to the unfortunate combination of fatigue and darkness, but none-the-less you arrive back at your camp about an hour before sunrise. Aerys is up and about, taking her turn at watch.
"Your back? I thought you said you were going to be out for almost a week unless you found something of note." Excitedly she asks, "Did you find a way off of the island?"
Dereje winces when Mizu knocks out the savage, but is otherwise more than satisfied with Lawdrak's compromise. He smiles when he sees Aerys, slightly happy that Mr. Aberwhinge would not be the first to hear the bad news.
"Well, you can certainly say that we found 'something of note,'" the paladin says, the attempted humor in his tone strained by his fatigue. He quickly gives up and opts to be more blunt. "We are not the only people on this island. We encountered a group of rather tribal-minded humans that were unfortunately hostile."
"No no... I wouldn't think so. They're nowhere nearby.. I think staying put and shoring up our defenses would be best."
She looks back to the group remembering mention of relocating...
"Unless someone has a suggestion for a more defensible spot for our base camp...?"
She loudly yawns and stretches...
".. which I'd hope would come after we've had a bit of rest."
"We can review what we know about the island in the morning and see if we, as a whole, want to move. "
Adara cannot think of anything to add before eating a hasty meal and crawling into bed. She sleeps fitfully worried her exhaustion comes at the wrong time as her dreams are plagued by nightmares of the survivors being swallowed whole by the skeletons of wrecked ships who then turn on each other in cannibalistic fashion until only one ship remains. She awakens with a start hoping desperately that nothing is wrong, and all are safe...
"Nowhere that would not invite more peril," Dereje admits, unable to think of a safer place to camp. "Lawdrak did an excellent job covering our tracks, so I believe we should be safe for now. Still, it would not hurt to post another guard. I volunteer, of course."
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Hearing the conversation a groggy Ishirou walks over to the group. "You and the others that were out look exhausted. Get some rest, I'll keep watch."
The day is relatively uneventful, with the exception of having to explain what you have seen to the others...repeatedly.
By time the next morning arrives you are all healed, refreshed and ready to face a new day.
Dereje spends the morning tuning his gun, making sure that its sensitive mechanisms have not been affected by the elements. Asides from being pragmatic, the paladin also found it therapeutic. Having something that he could easily maintain and keep in working order did wonders for keeping his head on straight, in spite of their hardship. His faith and conviction would handle the rest.
"Given our last encounter with them, I confess that I am not so eager to seek out whatever tribe those humans came from," Dereje says when the group meets to decide on their next plan of action. "Whether they truly meant us ill will, or whether they were simply defending their territory, I do not know. But we will not get very far if we provoke them further."
"In that case we should continue to explore the island. Perhaps we should follow the coast for a while to the southwest and see where it goes - having an idea of the outer perimeter that we can fill in later may be practical," suggests Hana.
"Sounds good. Let's set off West, stay on the western shore."
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After a day's time of rest and defensive re-enforcement back at the primary camp, the party sets off along the shoreline. Taking a break during the worst of the day's heat about an hour past the site of Sharpmaw's demise.
You continue along the shoreline as the heat begins to relent, stumbling across a nest of a large, but relatively easily dispatched crab about an hour and a half after you resume your travels. As an added benefit, you likely have enough crab meat to feed the lot of you for the evening should you so choose.
The sun is beginning to set when you arrive at what appears to be an abandoned campsite. This campsite looks almost like a series of partially ruined nests made out of palm fronds and driftwood. A large number of broken sawtooth sabres and daggers lie scattered about here.
Rummaging around the campsite, Lawdrak finds dagger still in its protective leather scabbard under a mound of toppled driftwood. The dagger’s blade is etched with a pair of crossed praying mantis claws—the mark of the Red Mantis.
Furrowing his brow, Dereje takes up the dagger and inspects it closely, noting its high quality.
"Red Mantis," he remarks gruffly, eyeing the mark on its blade. He turns his gaze to the rest of the camp. "Surely they can't be here, of all places."
The paladin shakes his head before putting the blade away. "Perhaps we should ask Sasha more about them once we return to camp. For now, shall we continue along the shoreline?"
"Aye, lets keep going at least until full dark."
Hana nods in the affirmative.
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As you travel further along the shoreline, the setting sun has turned the sky orange and a pleasant, cool breeze rolls in off the ocean, probably meaning you are in for a rainy, perhaps even stormy night.
The waves crash against a narrow beach of white sand, swirling around an immense red and orange crab the size of a small house that crouches on spiny legs.
As you approach the crab begins to move its clawed arms in a not entirely normal nature.
"Something is not right here...that crab is dead!"
"Is it that yellow musk fungus?"
Hana's hand hovers over her sword hilt, and she says, "If it's already dead, can it be killed again?"
Likewise, Dereje's hand hovers over his gun, ready to draw at a moment's notice.
"Look at the size of that thing... I should hope that we don't have to."
"Let's back away...and get fire close to hand. I have a sudden fear that it's full of...I don't know...something small enough to climb in its shell that eats dead crab. Probably lots of somethings, to make it move like that. "
If possible, Lawadrak begins to back up, while rooting in his pack for his flask of alchemists's fire.
Hana squints. "Wait. Is there someone inside there?"
"Perhaps not in the way we're thinking," Dereje remarks, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. The paladin draws his pistol and slowly approaches the crab, continuing to watch its movements.
"Tell him to keep his claws in the air and make no sudden sideways movements," says Hana flatly.