Kikiri snaps to attention, chittering with Kolung for a moment in Draconic before drawing his short swords and running towards the conflict.
Kolung slithers up alongside Calder and poises itself for an enemy's approach. It's ready to strike out against a foe when one presents itself to him.
The Ulfen raiders, save two (one who is dead and one who was overwhelmed by Clara's stink bomb) charge forward, heedless of the harm they've already been dealt. They shout war-cries. One of them runs out of the smoke and up onto the bridge, his lunch hitting the stone. Two burned raiders emerge from the smoke and join three of their brothers attacking Kolung and Calder. Two manage to get around the two and get t Kikiri, and one manages to get to Rae. Two more daring raiders charge past all of the defenses to attack Clara and Ameiko, but have to run too far to be able to swing their waraxes.
As the raiders close, Kolung snaps at one with his jaws.
His teeth close on the arm of one of the raiders, drawing blood. The man snarls and retaliates, while his four brothers try to take down Calder in one swoop of martial might.
Raiders 2 & 3 - 7 damage
Raider 4 - 7 damage, nauseated
Raider 5 - 8 damage
Raider 6 - 3 damage
Raiders 7-12 - unharmed
Irissa's flaming ball does much to harm the raider near her and Ameiko, but he still stands after its effects take hold. For her part, Ameiko draws her mithral rapier and begins to tell a story. "One time, there was a group of stupid, hairy pirates who tried to kill my friends! Spoiler alert: they all died."
Calder attacks his original opponent again.
Then takes a 5 foot step back.
Clara gives a small, "Yelp!" as the burly Ulfen raider charges toward her.
She takes a step backward, hollers "Heads up, Calder!", and lobs another fizzy pop toward one of his assailants. This bomb doesn't give off noxious smoke like the previous one did, but still explodes in an impressive spray of green flame (which somehow burn everyone beside the warrior, except for Calder). "Phew! I didn't think that was gonna hit you, Calder...but it's nice to be sure."
Rae takes a step towards the bandits that aren't currently doused in fire, swinging her sword into one of the bandits.
Calder swings his greataxe hard, cleaving through the poor raider's belly right before the more experienced Ulfen takes a step away from the melee. The man Calder hit groans in pain, holding his belly and crumpling uncomfortably. He is fortunately mere feet from the blast of fizzy-pop fireyness that Clara unleashes, as another raider falls prey to her deadly soda.
Rae takes a step towards her opponent and jabs him with her rapier. She is extremely close to piercing a vital organ, but a particularly tough bit of leather redirects her blade enough that it merely gets in there and messes up regular flesh.
Kikiri makes a daring maneuver, attempting to flip through the spaces of the two opposing Ulfen warriors.
Neither of them can keep up with his speed, and he lashes out with a short sword at the same raider that Rae struck with her rapier.
He strikes accurately, cleaving through the man's hamstring. The raider cries in pain, but keeps on fighting.
The raiders cry out their regular battle-oaths and keep on fighting. Three men attack Calder, two attack Kolung, two attack Kikiri, one attacks Clara and one attacks Ameiko. The last raider is still too busy throwing up from Clara's stink bomb to try and fight.
Raider 3 - 7 damage, grazed
Raider 4 - 7 damage, nauseated, grazed (1 round)
Raider 6 - 3 damage
Raider 7 - 13 damage, critical
Raiders 8-12 - unharmed
Kolung claws and bites the one wounded Ulfen warrior who Calder has disabled with his axe-swings. Under the young dragon's violent care the raider falls.
Irissa's flaming sphere continues to burn the Ulfen raider who dared to stand against her and Ameiko.
The raider that Irissa casts her spell on blinks in surprise, his stance relaxing. A blush builds over his cheeks as his eyes fall over Irissa.
Ameiko wastes no time, not waiting for the flaming sphere to be over to try and dispatch her opponent. She thrusts her rapier at the critically-burned raider in front of her. While she attacks, she continues her story - "Yeah, see these stupid pirates. Yeah, they forgot about one thing! The friends had a secret weapon - a powerful tavern owner and magician guarded them! While she was around, they had nothing to fear!"
With that, she tumbles across the battlefield, moving into position against one of the raiders that Calder is fighting.
Calder takes another step back, and even though his wounds build up, he manages a powerful swing that fells one of the raiders he had been fighting up till now. Ameiko sighs in frustration. "Geez old man, leave some for the rest of us, huh?"
Raider 4 - 7 damage, nauseated, grazed (1 round)
Raider 6 - 3 damage
Raider 7 - 13 damage, critical
Raiders 9-12 - unharmed
"OOooph!" Clarabibulus exclaims, as the Ulfen axe cuts into her forearm. "That hurt!"
She is about to retaliate when her attacker's demeanor suddenly changes. Clara blinks twice, confused for a moment at the raider's sudden change...until she notices the arcane words coming from Irissa's lips.
Smiling at the sorceress, Clara says, "Thanks there!" and then steps forward, lobbing another jar of fizzy pop into the fray. Seeing Calder get some relief, this time she aims for one of the ones who just badly injured Kolung. As she did the first time, she includes a bit of extra sulfur as she shakes it up, resulting in a noxious cloud of smoke that far extends beyond the boundary of the flame.
"Drink fizzypop, bandits!" she exclaims, adding, "...and not the good kind!"
_______________
HP 23/27
Bombs 17/20
"OLD!" Calder has a hurt expression, and not just from his wounds.
Grinning amidst the battle, the feel of adrenaline coursing through her veins, Rae takes another stab at the bandit, playfully swinging in and letting him dodge as she toys with him. She'd already proven her point by stabbing close to his lung, and now she was just toying with him. Idly, she wonders if Ameiko is having as much fun as she is.
Clara's bomb fells two of the raiders in one swoop of fire and fizzy liquid. They scream in pain as they fall to the ground, and as they do so, the remaining raiders realize they're outnumbered now. Even as Kolung vanishes in a display of rainbow-colored stars, the remaining five raiders turn tail and flee into the dark forest, running full-tilt to get away from the caravan. As they run, you notice that Shalelu, Koya, Sandru and the two guards the group hired have just finished off another half-dozen Ulfen raiders that came from the other side of the bridge.
Ameiko chases them... for about twenty feet. Then she stops, her feet crunching in the frosty snow. She waves her rapier around. "That's right!" she shouts. "Take that, f@@!ers!"
Meanwhile, Koya approaches Clara. "Oh, you're hurt!" she says, examining the axe-wound on Clara's forearm. "Do you need a cure?"
Calder watches Ameiko's antics. "Aren't you a bit old to be chasing strange men?" He asks her innocently.
He then moves over to Clara and Koya, hoping to get in on the healing.
Ameiko turns around and skips back to the gathering of caravanners, while at the same time, Shalelu just runs full-tilt after the escaping Ulfen warriors. She silently sprints past Ameiko, and the wind caused by her movement causes Ameiko's hair to wave. Ameiko smiles. "You know you're not supposed to bring up a lady's age," she says, casually wiping blood off her blade onto the ground while she winks.
Koya pulls out a holy symbol that resembles a small iron butterfly. "Song of Spheres, help to mend the wounds that pain us while we walk your roads." At the end of her prayer, a burst of positive energy washes out from her over the whole group.
Calder is back to 26hp now. He is a bit worried about Shalelu going after the raiders alone though.
Clara sees the stinging axe gash in her arm knit itself up and then dissolve entirely under Koya's healing influence.
"Thanks, sis!" the blue-haired gnome grins and nuzzles her head up against Koya's belly.
Then she looks over at the fallen warriors, many of them burnt to death by her own fizzypop. With a sad look, she says, "Great-great-great-grandpapa Umbilicus always said, 'Try to use fizzy drinks to help people, but sometimes you need to use them to blow someone up.' And I know they attacked us without warning.
"Still, I don't really like taking lives...and human lives are so short anyway...."
With a sigh, she says, "Anyone know why they attacked us? Were they just bandits, looking for easy money, or something else?
"I suppose we should look them over to see if there are any clues to their intent."
Each raider (of the thirteen dead who were left behind by their retreating brethren) wears a chain shirt and carries a battleaxe, two throwing axes, a buckler, and each wears a strange arm-band forged from gold. Each arm-band bears a stylized lion embossed on the metal. Each looks at least slightly valuable, being made of gold and all.
None of you readily recognize the meaning of the lion. It's obviously a marking of some allegiance, but you're not sure about to whom or what.
The raider that Irissa charmed stays behind when all of his comrades run away. He approaches her, a hand extended to caress her face, but before he even gets close... He freezes, his facial expression locked into a silent scream of agony. Blood begins to run in rivulets down his face and neck, coming out of the corners of his eyes, mouth, nose and ears. Within seconds the man has collapsed, still and silent and most certainly dead.
"Whoa!" Clara whispers.
Looking wide-eyed at Irissa, she asks, "What did you do to him?"
Since they were Ulfen raiders Calder has a look to see if he recognizes the symbol on the armbands?
He also asks "Can someone heal me again? I'd like to check Shalelu didn't find an ambush chasing those scum."
"You got any juice left, sis?" Clarabibulus asks Koya. "If not, I'm happy to break in our brand new wand."
...and if you need more after that...
When Calder is feeling better, Clara says, "I'm happy to pursue too...but I don't run quite as fast as you do."
Calder sets off on the path Shalelu went, matching his pace to Clara's. "Those fizzy drinks of yours were really effective!" He tells her as a compliment.
Koya shakes her head. "I used a lot of magic fighting the raiders, sorry."
Calder doesn't recognize the sigil more than any other party member. Individual leaders like the customize their sigils, And its been long enough that any number of powerful warlords could have come to power in the interim. He also doesn't need to chase after Shalelu, as she comes back shortly. She has blood on her hands, and curtly explains that she was only able to catch one.
To Irissa "So...something else just killed him? These bandits are mixed up in something creepy, eh?
"I don't know if I really want to mix it up with them again anytime soon...but that creepy silent-bleed-to-death thing makes me really curious."
"Those fizzy drinks of yours were really effective!" He tells her as a compliment.
The little gnome beams, grinning ear-to-ear. "If you think they're good at blowing people up, you should try drinking them. Maybe not the exact same recipe, mind you. Those ones are a bit too fiery.
"In fact," she says, turning to her companions, "After a fight like that, everyone deserves a fizzy drink. Let me break out my latest recipe: fig-huckleberry-sassafrass-cardamon fizzy pop. I've brewed some with and without a pinch of cayenne. Who's first?"
Calder wonders what he has unleashed? "Sure I'll try one." He responds to Clara's offer.
Clara hands small, corked glass beakers to Calder and anyone else who's interested.
"I'm always experimenting, so each batch is always a bit different. Tell me what you think!"
Saying a silent prayer 'Desna watch over me.' Calder uncorks the beaker and tries the fizzy drink. Tasting it carefully.
Sandru and Shalelu shrug and come up for their own little vials of Clara's fizzy drink, though they sniff and look at their servings very carefully before drinking them.
Koya knows better, and Ameiko holds back because it's much better to observe a story than to participate in it. For a bard, at least.
Sandru carefully takes a sip. His face freezes in surprise, and he very slowly gulps. His grimace solidifies as he hands the vial, still half-full, back to Clara. "Yup... Mhm. It's so good... I don't even need the other half of it. Heh." He then gingerly turns around and walks back to the caravan to inspect it for damage, wiping his lips and grumbling.
Shalelu downs the whole thing in one gulp, her face as impassive as usual. She spends a moment licking the inside of her mouth, one eye shut with concentration. Then she smiles. "Very good, Clara. You'll have to let me know when the next batch is ready."
You took with you a woman named Alita, one of the more skilled trackers in your tribe. The two of you walk carefully through the tundra, mere minutes from the bridge that separates the Nolands from Varisia. You recall the last time you were in Varisia... but only for a moment. Goblins don't come up this far north. Their thin skin and weak constitutions can't handle it.
After a few moments, you come within eyeshot of the bridge and see something unexpected: several wooden carts and a group of Varisian travelers can be seen from here, lit up in the darkness by light spells and torches. Most of them are clustered around a gnome, who is handing around little vials. Alita stops, pulling her bow off of her back and stringing it quickly. She looks to you for guidance, speaking in Skald. "What do you say, chief? Do you think they know where your son is?"
Tallak runs his hand through his beard, "Perhaps. But these are strangers to our lands, clearly. Best not to put them on edge more than they already are. Let us approach them openly and in a peaceful manner...but be prepared for combat should they prove hostile despite our own efforts."
The armored bear at his side sniffs the air. Tallak reaches out and strokes the beast behind its ear. "Easy. Stay at my side."
Calder licks his lips and smiles, nodding at Clara he drinks the rest of the fizzy drink happily. "Very good! There is a strong flavor of Sassafrass, then the others slip in before it gets overwhelming."
Calder notices the Crow, and scowls again at it, he doesn't notice the new arrivals. Looking around to see if anyone doesn't want their fizzy drink?
Clara beams with pride as her comrades sample her latest fizzy drink. Wow Sandru sure did like that drink! Enough to only drink half!!
She calls after him, "You could always save the rest for tomorrow. Or I can save it for you!"
As Calder and Shalelu give their reviews, she takes out a corner of parchment and jots down: One eye shut with concentration...strong sassafrass...other flavors slip in before it gets overwhelming.
Throughout the conversation, she stays very focused on the important business of fizzy drink sampling. At one point she thinks she hears a rustle in the bushes...but tunes it out so as to better focus on the task at hand.
_____________
Calder happily finishes Sandru's bottle. It's not alcoholic, but it is refreshing.
Coming out of the brush on the other side of the bridge come two Ulfen warriors, accompanied by what appears to be... a bear? One of the Ulfen is extraordinarily tall, with a thick reddish beard, steel armor, and a cloak fashioned from a white wolf's fur across his shoulders. The other is a fit but slender woman, wearing leathers. Her hair is long, straight, and blonde, and she carries a bow in her hands.
They approach across the bridge but neither move to get aggressive.
Ameiko strides to the bridge's edge, accompanied by Shalelu, Sandru, Kelda and Dyami. "Hey you!" she shouts. "You're not here to attack us, are you? Because we just killed a bunch of you northern folk and we're totally fine going for two more!"
Looking to Alita, he mutters to her in his native tongue, "Enkel, Alita. Husk vi er ikke her for å skade dem. Bare for å finne Drakon."
The armored man in the white wolf fur steps forward, showing his hands as empty. "We mean you southerners no harm," he proclaims in the common tongue, though the growling, armor clad bear at his side likely does little to aid in convincing the group as such. "We come in search of a young man of my clan who joined up with a raiding party against the wishes of myself and our jarl. I am Tallak, son of Sigurdar. This is Alita," he adds, gesturing to the woman but a few paces behind him.
Looking at the various bodies of the fallen, his posture becomes quite steadfast as he asks, "You have slain a large number of our kin, seemingly in fair combat. Would you allow me to examine the fallen?"
Ameiko just says, "Oh." She shrugs and looks at Shalelu, who also shrugs. She turns around to the rest of the group. "What do you guys think? There's only two of 'em, and they're just asking to look at the bodies."
Clara's arm goes reflexively toward her bomb as she sees another two Ulfen appear...but their body language (and languagey-language) seem the exact opposite of the silent attackers they'd faced minutes before.
She puts her fizzy pop back in her belt and lets her curiosity win out over fear. Pulling herself up to her full three foot height, she says, "Hilsener Tallak, sønn av Sigurdar. Jeg er Clarabibulus Flingflopsparkfizz, søster av Koya og tipp-tipp-oldebarn av Umbilicus som brygget den ultimate musserende drikke tilbake i en alder av skjebne."
Then switching to Taldan, she continues, "I have never before met a hairy human wearing a hairy wolf next to a hairy (and kind of scary) bear. Do your people worship a god of Hairy Things? I did read a story once of a witch who could pick things up with his hair. Can you pick things up with your hair?
"I hope these were not close kin of yours. They snuck up and attacked us without provocation. The only interesting thing we found on them was these golden armlets." she holds one up and starts to walk toward the hairy northman...before making eye contact with the bear and quickly backing up again.
Tallak looks quizzically at the eccentric gnome asking ridiculous questions. He walks calmly over to her, however, and takes the arm let and looks it over before handing it off to Alita. He then begins to move towards the bodies, saying "Ursus, hæl."
The bear moves closely alongside the Ulfen warrior, keeping a keen eye on the southerners as he does so. But then the man halts, and regards the gnome once again.
"Hva sa du? Det navnet?"
Calder moves so he's in position if trouble starts, he keeps quiet and lets the speakers do their work.
"What, my name?" She looks startled, and a little proud to have attracted his attention. "Clarabibulus. Or did you mean my great-great-great-grand-papa? He was Umbilicus Flingflopsparkfizz. One of the greatest gnomish explorers, from the first days that we gnomes came to Golarion from the First World. Family tales tell of how he traveled the world--often together with Nivi Rhombodazzle--but his most glorious achievement was discovering the recipe for the Ultimate Fizzy Drink.
"Tragically," (and at this point the young gnome takes on a very serious tone) "the original recipe for the Ultimate Fizzy Drink was lost during the Tarrasasque invasion of -632 AR. Since then we Flingflopsparkfizzes have worked frenetically--but fruitlessly--to try to replicate it.
"We only have fragments of his notes--that Tarrasque was a big pain in the rear--and there's some debate in the family as to whether the Ultimate Fizzy Drink was best enjoyed as a beverage or thrown at one's foes, but everyone agrees that it was zesty, uplifting, and very very fizzy.
"Have you heard of him? Really?" The gnome looks at the hairy human with hopeful eyes.
As the gnome flies into a tyrade of nonsense, Tallak attempts to interject her, but the gnome is too animated and involved in her familial pride to be stopped. When she finally takes a breath, Tallak finally manages to get some words in, "No, not any of that..." he shakes his head, The wind must be playing tricks on my ears. Besides, she was an old woman, even all those years ago. And a human.
"No, I must have heard wrong..."
Clara looks clearly deflated, after being so sure she'd finally met someone who knew about her really really really famous ancestor.
"Ahh. Anyway, this hear is Calder. He's tough and Ulfen too, like you. That's Ameiko over there. She's, like, the queen of a faraway kingdom. Probably, we think. And for sure she's a great musician, and really funny for a human. That's my sister Koya." she points to a sixty year old human. " She's a cleric of Desna and we're practically twins because we were born just a year apart and after my parents were eaten by shriezyx in Magnimar our mama Niska raised us both like we were her own. I mean, Koya was her own, but you get the idea. Anyway, that there is Rae. She's a musician too, and good with a rapier. That's Irissa. She enchanted a man who was trying to chop me up with a hatchet, and then blood ran out of his eyes and he totally died.
"Oh, and that's Shalelu, who's great at scouting and shooting things, and that's Sandru, who's kind of like the boss of the caravan...only not the boss of everything, because he's not the rightful queen of a great foreign nation or anything. At least as far as we know so far. Huh, wouldn't that be something though if both he and Ameiko turned out to be rightful queens though?"
Turning to her companions, she asks, "Did I get that right?"
And then--before anyone has a chance to answer--she says, "Oh!! What was I thinking? You come in peace and I didn't even offer you a fizzy drink." She pulls a vial from her belt and holds it out. "Here you go. This is my newest batch: fig-huckleberry-sassafrass-cardamon fizzy pop."
Still holding out the drink (and barely stopping to take a breath) she adds, "You said to your quiet friend that you're looking for a Dragon? That's pretty cool! If you find it, can I have some of its parts, to experiment with? There must be some cool fizzy drinks you can make with dragon bits!"
Again the overly talkative gnome says the name from his past, this time pointing out an elderly woman within the caravan. Tallak squints his eyes and steps away from the gnome towards her.
Impossible! It...it can't be...
Tallak waves off the offered drink as he studies the older woman, and only partially catches the misunderstood name. "Not dragon. Drakon. That is the name of the man I have been seeking..." he replies without averting his gaze from the woman identified as Koya.