The rumblings subside. The creature seems disuaded, for now at least. Maborg and his people, sweaty and exhausted from the fight and then the workout that followed, begin milling around, making their preparations to depart. Some crewmembers tend to their fallen, splinting broken bones, bandaging wounds.
It's gone from evening to a warm and pleasant nighttime, insects are buzzing, the stars and moons are bright silver blue. The rainbow aurora over the mountains is even brighter and more spectacular against the deep black sky.
Kendall harumphs to himself "Now if we come across it again, at least it will do so without endangering the public." His gaze turns to the Tiefling, "Which leads us to you, now you listen to me, and you listen well. Yes we were planning on investigating the same place you are, and we are willing to assist you in retrieving your comrades, however for the inconvenience of having to lay brute squad tactics on your team, this service does not come free. Upon freeing the rest of your team, we lay claim to HALF of the various plunder your team has already assembled. It's either that or be stranded down here admist the public whom you've already harassed and with nothing."
It wasn't about the money, but Maborg was a brute and a scoundrel, and money was what he understood. Extortion...leverage was what he understood. The knight needed to prove that his team was not to be taken lightly, or to be mistaken as naive. There needed to be a reward for the actions undertaken.
"Dunno about that Sir Kendall. Reckon us'd be better having cash up front so to speak. I don't much fancy way he lead angheck to innocent folk."
She turns her glare on Maborg. "Tha looks like sort would rather stab than pay, if you'll excuse my speaking plain."
Maborg frowns thoughtfully, turning from his preparations to leave to study the other salvage crew and their two offers.
"I have to say, I agree we should settle our accounts up front. Who knows what we'll run into in the tower. No saying. I'd rather you knew what you were agreeing to." He turns and takes a step toward his crew. "As it turns out though, big pouches of gold weren't our priority heading out from the crash. That said, we could probably pool together a nice collection of magic items to repay your contributions?"
He waves up the members of his crew and begins to shake them down for a few items each. By the end there's a decent-sized pile: A belt, several different shaped potion bottles, some necklaces, a pair of bracers, and a few small throwing-sized weapons. He bundles them up and hands them over for you all to look over, his face all business, stony serious. "What do you think of the offer? We comrades?"
"Looking first, then bargain. That's me way."
Edie eyes the proffered loot, seemingly lost in thought.
Reet. Tha canst be useful Feylord. What's this lot?
Taking the proffered loot, Aleena meticulously arranges each of the items as if setting up a market stall. The cleric tries on each of the necklaces, turning to her daughter for an opinion on each.
Just because your child lacks appendages from time to time doesn't mean you can't do mother and daughter things together.
Remembering her manners, Edie turns to B.B. and Aleena.
"Grand to meet tha, B.B. Can see tha hast mother's hair."
B.B.'s eyes light up and she lifts her front two corners off the ground to form the U-shape of a smile.
"Why thank you, Miss Edie! It's wonderful to meet you too!" she grins.
B.B. yawns, "Yan, Tan, tether, mether…*ZZZ*…" is all she can manage to count to before succumbing to sleep.
"Aww, she's all tuckered out from today's activities," whispers Aleena, as she rolls up her daughter and cradles her in her arms.
" I believe we are of an accord. However if the strange dust in the area caused your ship to go down, then it seems we must proceed on foot. Let us ruck up and move on foot then."
"Not so speedy, Sir Kendall. Just want to know a bit more about what happened at Tower before we go bustling in. Get cards out before spinning."
Taking the burly knight aside for a second, she goes on.
"Let's not be making any bargains we can't keep. Yon Maborg's a bad lot I don't doubt - likely to kill us if he can seeings we've ship and he hasn't by all accounts."
All the ways and methods for figuring out the ins and outs of magic items have one thing in common. They take time. The examination of all of these, as well as the fight before, seem to point toward something interesting. They seem to have lost significant charge, as though their dwomers, the magic bound within them, had been diminished--drained by something. Not much else that can be discovered without taking the required hours of downtime fiddling with each one.
Maborg notes the discovery, "It's that storm. Scrambled them or something. Did the same to our ships too, which caused our mess. There's thousands of gold there in your hands if you can get them straightened out. Thousands. Should be worth your help. If not, we'll be happy to take them back and be on our way."
" Tell us more about where you were, and what happened to the rest of your crew."
Kendall crosses his arms, nodding softly to Edie.
"We came across the edge of the mountain range and as we passed into the storm, it seemed as if that weird glowing snow passed right through our ship. It seemed to muck up our engines, because no sooner did we enter than the havok began. Our ships to the left and right peeled away and went down near the slopes. Ours was able to drift a little further and ended up on the far side of the first mountain, about halfway up. I gathered the crew and we went around the side of the mountain and down to gather all our people in one camp, it took us a day--but it was a deathmarch with magical monsters hounding us over every inch. We were able to camp the night, but all of us got tore up plenty by attacks that night. I ordered most of our folks to stay and protect each other and have our most arcane leaning crewmen to study out what was wrong, while a few of our strongest would head out of the mountains and get ox-wagons to pull our craft clear. Our thought was outside of the storm, the effects on our engines might clear up on their own--or at least we'd have a spot of civilization, some tools, food and rooms at the inn. Thing is, folks in town got problems with folks from the mountains--so they know you've come from there, they'd as soon spit on you as offer to sell you anything, or even offer you a room. So, here we are. You with a ship, and us needing to go back for men and ships, and with salvage to do--in a town that sees us as cursed by something in their mountains."
Ruminating more to himself than anyone else, "So. A residuum storm... I supposed a charged mote of residuum traveling through an oppositely charged arcane item may strip it of its inherent properties."
Kai's eyes brighten and more to the group as he feels he may have a valid cause, "It sounds similar to a Disenchant Ritual... of course on a much larger scale... and raining down from the skies... and strong enough to knock multiple flight machine from the air."
Then to the pile of items offered from Maborg, "And if we take those items with us to this Tower, I'm not sure how long their inherent magicks will last."
Kai fiddles with the bracers and the belt attempting to attune himself to them, so perhaps he can gain more info in an hour or so... but maybe also find out more about this draining effect.
As the afterthought occurs to him, "Actually, with that much unrefined arcane essence raining down on the environ, it's no wonder the fauna is unbalanced and willing to attack so aggressively... Maborg, I fear the team you left behind may be in greater peril than previously suspected."
"Reckon we'll take offer Maborg. We'll help you find shipmates and fix up ships. Then you'll be leaving us in peace or we'll be hunting you down like wolves we know you to be. Happen that'll come anyroad, soon or late, but I'm not one for attacking the underdog. You should know that our fire is guarded and we mind our flocks well. Be told."
Edie spits on her hand in the time honoured way and holds it out to the tiefling.
The knight errant clasps his hands behind his back, an air of agreement to him as Edie makes the deal.
Maborg spits on his palm. It sizzles. He takes Edie's hand and shakes. His eyes flash. His hand is uncommonly warm to the touch, but not painful--just suprising, like a sun warmed stone.
"Done. So we'll need to get crew first. They should still be camped at the closest crash site. The ship seemed fairly entact from the look we had at it. If it's close enough we may even be able to pull it free. Then we need to see if we can figure out how to unclog the engines using that one to experiment with. If we can, we go back in on foot, fix the engines of the other two and limp them out. A lot of this rests with our artificers and other arcane sorts to figure out what's going on and how to fix it--but I've got faith you can figure it out. If not that, then we're going to have to find some way to get a hold of some big ox-team drawn wagons big enough to haul an ornithopter and try to drive it up into and around that big mountain there. So that's my plan. What's your take?"
"Good enough until we know better. How far's this camp of yours?"
Aleena nods, both in silent agreement with the point raised by Kai-Solvis, as well as to indicate that she's ready to move out.
"Anyroad, we're walking."
It's a long walk straight into the mountains before Maborg realizes he's been had, that having hired the party for their ship that they have no intention of letting him use it or even see it. He's furious and feels betrayed, eyes glowering hatefully. The trip takes hours longer than it would--it's nighttime travelling into the mountains by torchlight. Everyone is exhausted, from the late hour as well as from various injuries and exertions. It's all that can be done to keep some members of Maborg's crew moving over the uneven ground and thick brush. The burn blackened crewmember and the one with the broken ribs hobble along bitterly.
Around midnight the elevation of the hike starts to get more strenuous--not quite time for the ropes and climbing kits, but it's a definite uphill chug, even for the uninjured, through a field of stones and dense trees that litter the lower slopes of the mountains. Visibility drops to a dozen feet between mossy boulders and slanted treetrunks. There's a feline yowl out in the distance and some heavy scrabbling in the underbrush. Maborg's complaining cuts out, his eyes go big, and he unlimbers the big spiked club from his back.
Kendall takes his cues, unsheathing his craghammer, snapping "Defensive positions. Solidify frontline." He looks to Maborg then towards the rise, "Do you know what made that howl, then?"
Seeing the movement, Edie's hands immediately move to her wand.
"Dost know what that is?" she asks softly.
Maborg shakes his head. He holds up his hand and gives a gesture to his crew and they immediately close up into a tight circle, back to back with weapons out, every eye scanning the maze of timber and stone.
A snarling black shape leaps from the rocks, it lands nearly on top of Edie, placing her between it and the rest of the defenders. It's jaws tear into her dress and armor skirting while whirling fur covered tenticles lash about it's head, darting like cobras, one flicks past her eye, missing by an inch, nearly plucking it out in a blur of tooth-claw things clustered on the undersides of the pads. Just as fast another tenticle digs into her shoulder meat, tenticle claws snapping down like snake fangs and ripping free again . It doesn't leap clear. It just stands there, on its six skinny razor-clawed panther legs, hissing and snarling over her as if claiming her--daring anyone to challenge it.
"Ho!" Kendall charges the critter, his hammer out. He swings a vicious undercut swing at the unknown creature, planting his feet right next to it, his intent is clear. Look away at its own peril.
MBA vs critter for
Power Strike for an extra
Defend the Line is up. Critter is slowed if that hits, takes a -2 to attack anyone but me, takes an OA from me if it attack anyone but me or if it shifts. If I miss the OA, he still takes 4 damage
" Get her back, I shall handle this!" The knight, a bit late to the valiant charge perhaps, gives his orders.
Edie draws her breath in with a hiss and exhales again, to speak a strange phrase.
"Ata onna, sinte lya heru"
She wrenches her arm free, and stabs at the beast with her wand, before blurring into the shadows as she teleports away.
That should have hit--the craghammer was swinging directly in line with the monsters' grotesquely grinning feline skull, but as the hammer follows through, some trickery is at play--the monster was nowhere near there, five feet out of range and well clear of your defensive positioning.
Edie suffers no such misapprehension, the beast had its claws in her. She rolls her shoulder back and blasts the creature with scalding hate. It hisses, skin bubbling, and lopes into the darkness out of sight. That eerie hunting yowl starts up again. It is circling.
Pulling herself to her feet, Edie rejoins the group, trying to mask the extent of her injuries.
"Seemingly we can't be sure where beastie is lessen it's got grip on us," she comments.
"Any of you know awt about these things? Happen they're feared of fire, like?"
Kai inches closer to Edie to make sure she is fine and readies himself to blast the feline creature as soon as it shows. His eyes light up as he begins incanting a simple spell... holding off on the last syllable so that he can release a column of arcane flame the instant he sees the creature.
Kendall stands defensively in front of Edie. " I know not, but it is most elusive and full of tricks."
Wary of the armored dwarf and the circle of Maborg's crew, the beast leaps out again, apparently beside Aleena. Kai-Sovis brings down a plume of golden fire which lights the darkness between the trees and rocks like a flash of daylight. He watches the point of impact, the direction the impact knocks Aleena, rather than where the beast appears to be standing and the spell successfully hits--though unfortunately, it seems Aleena is caught up in the blast as well.
The first assault of the creature impacts on Aleena's armor, it's first tentacle slamming into her guard, battered harmlessly away. The second tentacle strikes true, her guard thrown off in the blast, giving her a set of nasty scratches in a whipping toothy upswing .
Already miserable from hiking in the dark, Aleena's night goes from bad to worse as she's first blown up, then caught off-guard by a toothy uppercut.
Furious, she raises her staff over her head, summoning an orange bird of spectral flames.
"I demand vengeance! Lily, claw its eyes out!
"Fed up with this, me. Two can play this game," grumbles Edie as she launches a tiny gem of light towards where she thinks the beast should be, trying to avoid her allies. As it lands, the gem expands to outline the creature and make it unsure about its own position.
With experience in timing forged from seconds of working together, Kendall moves like a rather slow, but powerful freight wagon, clanking as he moves to engage the Displacer Critter.
Charge for rerolling damage for brutal 2
Kai had not intended to catch Aleena in his attack, the beast must've moved too quickly.
The fiery hawk perches on the face of the feline monstrocity, digging beak and talons into it's eyes and face. Vengeance indeed. It makes a nice distracted target for Edie's witchfire, which immolates the cat creature in silver flame, burning not only it's body--but it's spirit as well down to fine silver dust. Kendall arrives chugging onto the scene just as the body of the creature collapses into a pile of ash.
"Good. Now that that's dealt with," says Maborg joylessly. "We've wasted enough time here. Let's get up to the camp."
His formation of crewmen resume their marching order and as he passes the battle weary party he addresses them in passing. "Displacer beast. Fey creatures, use nasty illusions to hide themselves. You should salve those wounds. They look angry." He gives an amused half smile and continues his hike.
"Reet. Always good to know what we've killed." She nods approvingly at her comrades.
"Eee, tha's good folks to have in pinch."
Moving closer to Aleena, Edie mutters, "Don't suppose tha hast bandage anywhere? Shoulder might be festering a tad."
"One moment..." Kai busies himself by cutting into the displacer beast with one of the small daggers he carries... At first glance it looks like he might be cleaning it for a meal later, then it just looks like he's digging in it like he's lost his chamber-keys...
He's not subtle or clean about it and soon the corpse is near unrecognizable, and Kai seems to be pulling organs out to keep.
What mass of feline shaped corpse is left crumbles into ash at Kai's touch--the fire seems to have consumed it from the inside out leaving some bits of blackened bone, teeth and claws as the only reminders that this was once an animal and not a campfire. One thing can be learned forensically from this mess. Best not to cross Edie.
That said, a pouch of displacer beast ash would make an outstanding ritual component--and there's plenty here .
Well, Kai digs through the ashes... it appears he is looking for something. Anything. He pockets a few of its teeth, stands, and declares, "Next time, try not to destroy everything. We may have been able to learn a great deal from this fallen creature... or at least salvaged some of its more arcane parts."
Kai stares down at his dirty hands, sleeves, and travel robes. Grimaces. And two arcane words later, the grime and soot are magically swept free -- he appears to have just stepped off the Leprichaun.
Edie looks apologetically at Kai as he attempts to investigate the displacer beast remnants. "Dint mean to be quite so thorough. Got a bit annoyed, like."
The hike gets steeper, requiring two free hands to clutch at trees and rocks as the two groups of adventurers wind an S-shaped path up the steep incline, there in the distance among the pines, a flattened spot can be made out, the glow of several small bonfires at it's edges silhuetting a number of figures standing guard, behind them is the squarish bulk, tilted on one side--the shadow outline of a downed ornithopter. Rainbow hued motes of residuum are now falling from the sky, like a prismatic fog that's drifting down in eddies dusting the rocks and woody brush and ferny plants.
"The Grim Portent. At last" grunts out Maborg. "And it only took all night slogging through the dark getting attacked by monsters--if only we'd had some faster method of travel. So glad we paid such a premium for your help." Maborg pulls something silver from his pack and puts it to his lips and whistles. A very distinctive noice--sort of a metallic slicing sound comes out. Some of the guards at camp light torches and begin picking their way downhill toward you.