Round 7
Noting the congestion, once on the ground, Paul makes his way carefully around the southern wall, just to the other side of the trapped pit (at F:2). He readies his rifle, pointing at the opening in case the bat-elf-woman came rushing out to attack.
He calls out discreetly,
"Doc, if you need to get in closer, there's room now. Not that I don't trust the lion's judgement; just need a second opinion is all. I have your back."
Bart moves forward 10 ft (to G:4) so as to not overcrowd the others, yet be close enough to Gii to be of assistance if he requires it. He goes into total defence (standard action) as he waits.
"Gii, not far behind you, if you need me."
To Alar through their link, //"Just watch her for now. Tell us what she is doing."//
Alar takes a 5ft step to A:5 and waits as instructed by Bart through their link.
He keeps his eyes on the elf-bat-woman, ready if she attempts to attack.
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Linndell readies his bow in casr a target appears.
Gii shoulders his way to get into a position where he can speak to the woman. He looks her over, head to toe, and sighs, relaxing a little. "Yes, she does seem similar to lady Leeara. What is wrong with this town?" the Nethian asks no one in particular. "Greetings. I am Doctor Gii, a healer, and your wounds seem like they could benefit from having me look at them," he says to her in a soothing voice. "Would that be okay?" he asks, extending an open palm to her.
The elf-bat woman stared at Gii and as he drew closer. She shied back against the rock wall and began snapping her mouth full of sharp little teeth and extending her clawed wing (as if to ward or strike, you are unsure of which). She began speaking in the unfamiliar tongue; the words sounding clipped and repetitive. In her good hand, you can see a longbow.
Gii scratches his chin, unsure of how to proceed. "Anyone got any clue what she's saying?"
Gii wrinkles his nose as he realizes the language she is speaking. "Aklo? Here, of all places? I cannot say this bodes well. And we are still no closer to understanding how to deal with her..." the Nethian states, frowning.
Gii scratches the back of his head, unsure of what to do. "Any ideas, friends? At this rate, we might be better off just leaving her here."
Linndell asks in Dwarven... What is your name?
The bat-elf cocks her head to the side as if she is puzzling out the words coming out of Linndell's mouth, but there doesn't seem to be any recognition in her animalistic eyes. She clearly can speak, so you deduce that she has the capacity, but either she doesn't understand the dwarven language or has no idea how to respond. From her stance and expression it is difficult to say. She is still breathing excitedly and in a defensive posture, so it could just be that she is wary of the growing number of bodies closing in on her.
It seems as though she cannot understand us, and us her. I am unsure of her exact origins, but think we should give her a bit of room. I do not think it wise to spook her.
Linndell puts his bow away and raises his hands to show her he has no weapons.
Perhaps we can try to use body language to overcome the lack of communication.
Linndell pats himself on his chest.
Linndell.....Linndell.
He hen points at the poor misguided creature, cocking his head in an inquisitive manner.
The elf-bat-woman cocked her head at the female voice and pushed her clawed wing forward, snapping her mouth, and muttering her strange words in Aklo.
When the male stowed his bow and gestured with his hands, agitatedly she clawed the air and more of the strange words came from her mouth. She banged her good arm, still holding the bow, against the tunnel wall.
//"The doc still has that orb Miss Leeara gave us, right? Ask him, via your message link, to show the bat-woman the thing. You said yourself she's like Miss Leeara, so maybe she'll recognise it..."//
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Ayreth looks around at her companions, meeting each person's gaze. "I believe that there is nothing that we might do here other than to provoke her. We should remember that we are the invaders here. If there were something to be done, it would be our duty. For now, however, we should press on."
She takes out her glass ball, rolling it over her fingers as she awaits the party's opinions.
Hearing Bart's message through their link, Gii rubs at his jaw once more. "It's worth a shot," he replies, before rummaging through his satchel for the orb. Upon retrieving it, he holds it out in front of the bat-elf.
The elf-bat-woman grew agitated by the unexpected movement of the male closest to her and she renewed her biting sounds and clawing the air. She peered closer at what he brought out of the bag, her bat-like eyes staring at the sphere, fixated.
In a matter of seconds, her posture relaxed -- less defensive -- and her general countenance appeared more calm. The elf-bat-woman still muttered the strange, repetitive words in Aklo, but she did not appear to be hostile toward the group anymore.
The elf-bat-woman placed her longbow against the tunnel wall and raised her good/only hand out toward Gii and the sphere he was holding.
"This town and the surrounding country side seem plagued with curses. Could you break whatever is afflicting this woman?"
Blue Heron asks while clutching her stomach.
"I can't say for sure this is the same kind of thing that happened to miss Leeara, though," Gii explains. He takes a step backwards and begins attempting to see if he can detect any magic coming from the woman, recalling what he sensed when he observed Leeara in her partially-transformed state.
This series of events is clearly unsettling.....a meteor/ship, a plague and people acting strange.....very peculiar.
Bart was surprised when it actually worked! The fact that she recognized the orb, in his mind, wasn't a guaranteed good thing though. It meant that she might be one of the cultists, transformed for some reason. Rather then put the group on edge, in case he was wrong, Bart instead told Alar to keep vigilant. "I still need more practice myself. This 'identifyin magic' thing is slippery. Seem ta get it one moment and the next noting."
With the fighting done, Alar moved closer to Bart, though his eyes remained on the batwoman. She hadn't truly been hostile so the lion wasn't sure what was going on with Bart, but the lad tended to be clever, so Alar trusted him.
"Very purposeful, some of that. There's definitely some kind of magic affectin som of you guys. I think tomorrow I'll give another go at studyin it wit fresher eyes. And if its going on wit those that had nightmares, could be the whole town. Not sure how it mixes with the ship though. It's arrival is pretty timely though."
The bat-elf takes the globe from Gii's hand, gingerly, a somewhat strange sight, given her bestial appearance. She takes the object in her hands, and with a glazed look in her eyes, her fanged mouth almost seems to curl into a smile. She looks back at the group with different eyes. Not physically, but now there is almost a look of hope within, and a glimmer of what can only be the distant vestiges of what she once was. She nods and puts the orb into her pouch.
Again she speaks in Aklo, but seeing the lack of recognition in the faces around her, begins to try to pantomime crudely.
First she looks up, seemingly at nothing, in the distance, collecting herself. She points at herself, then points up, jabbing at the air with her finger several times. She makes a waving motion with her good hand, then points up again. For a moment again, she thinks, then with her hand above her head, flat and palm down, she slowly points it down, wavering a bit as it falls, the slams it hard into the open palm of her other hand and makes a "KKKKTTTTSHHJ" sound.
She shoulders carefully by the group, moving into the open area, then turns and looks at them, a gleam of renewed energy in her eyes. She then makes a motion at the group, undeniably one of beckoning.
Bart stood, mouth open, staring at the woman. Then he looked to the others before looking back to her. He was a little too stunned to remember he had his whisper spell going, and he spoke loud enough that even the batwoman would hear his voice. "Did she just... did she just tell us she came from the ship that crashed?"
"Perhaps. If only we spoke her language. We should follow her.
I think she did indicate that.....this is getting more and more odd the further we go. I can only speculate what is next....
The bat-elf continues to move pointedly back the way you all came, pausing every so often and beckoning with her good arm. She stops after moving a short distance, waiting for the group to follow, only seeming to become slightly agitated if they do not.
She pulls the orb from out of her pouch, and after looking at it again, holds it above her head and begins to turn in place, pointing up at it. Nodding to herself, satisfied that she has communicated her point, she puts offers it back to Gii.
Finally, standing at the site of the crashed/sabotaged lift, she looks up to the cave and scratches her head, looking back at the party again.
Gii shrugs, following after her, and accepting the orb when she offers it to him. "I have heard of worse choices than following a strange woman I just met," the Nethian quips, before returning the orb to his satchel.
Bartholomew goes up to the broken lift as well and looks at whatever rope had been holding it up. "If anyone's good at climbing they can go up and secure this, make it a lot easier for the rest of us. But do we want to leave yet? There's that other tunnel that smells like a very dirty person..."
Bart looks to the batwoman, uncertain if she understood anything he was saying. "Friend of yours?"
Alar was close behind, and for the first time since Bart had joined the party, the lion was letting his true form show. By this point, Bart trusted the group a little, and Alar seemed to have sensed that. Now the lion stood there in all of his glory, glowing like a dozen stars with ethereal blue skin and long white lines instead of bones. To anyone that knew of such things he might look like a star chart that had a constellation drawn out, stars lining up to form the shape of a lion. It happened suddenly too, just as it had with Bart and his shadows.
I think that we should explore the mines a bit more. But I can climb to secure a line whenever we need to. We should maybe take a second to focus and gather our thoughts before carrying on.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Bart looks to the batwoman, uncertain if she understood anything he was saying. "Friend of yours?"
The elf-bat-woman cocked her head, wondering what the small one was saying.
A series of phrases in Aklo were issued and more of her simple, pantomime gesturing.Ayreth points at the woman, then up to the hole. "Up?," she asks with an exaggerated tone.
The elf-bat-woman pointed at her chest and then at each of them and using her one hand (which was holding the longbow) and wing pantomimed climbing up the broken elevator shaft.
Gii rubs his jaw in thought. "Though it will weaken our time advantage, I believe following her is the best option right now. I do not imagine she will stick around long, if we leave her here to continue exploring the mine," he explains. "And in the worst case, she might attack us again."
Yes, following here is likely the best option for now....some of us can't survive a combat right now....
Linndell follows the bat-elf woman, senses straining to detect any traps or alarms.
"She needs help. We should follow her."
After a moment of looking back at the party and the shaft above her, the bat-elf notices the rope that Linndell had secured when the group first arrived. Shouldering her bow, she grasps the rope and pulls it taught, and begins to slowly pull herself up.
The rest of the group then follows, aided by a rope that Paul had carefully tied knots into in order to ease the climbing process.
Once back on the surface, Paul begins walking towards his mount, looking back at the group.
"I reckon I'm going to head back to town, keep an eye on things there. Our friend Linndell can handle the trapfindin'. He seems pretty handy at that."
Nodding at Blue Heron, he then fixes a signature gaze upon Bart, raising an eyebrow and glancing over at his companion, the starry lion.
"You keep out of trouble, kid. This is serious business, and these folks need you to take it that way."
Then he tips his hat at Ayreth, winking at her as he pulls himself up onto his horse.
"You take care now, ma'am."
as he rides off his last words are heard;
"I'm countin' on you keepin' them alive, Doc"
The time is barely afternoon, and the sun is nearly directly above you. It beats down with little cloud cover,and the heat of the day is apparent in moments. The bat woman squints her bestial eyes, clearly not accustomed to the brightness of it all, but finds at least a small amount of solace when she discovers she can use her mutated wing arm as a shade, keeping a good amount of sun out of her face.
She begins walking to the nearest higher ground, looking around silently at first, then speaking again in broken Aklo. After a minute or two she seems to have settled on a direction and points with her good hand to the south. The rough terrain stretches for miles and miles, rollings hill scattered with scrubs and rocks with very little acting as anything close to a landmark.
She returns to the party, looking them over ans twitching her nose, taking in their scent, pausing for a moment at Alar, but only for a moment. She then points to the south and grunts, nodding, an almost satisfied look on her chiropteran maw.