Round 1, Init 8
Pent hiccups as the doru comes into view. "Ahhh, you're ugly!!! Ugly, and deceitful!!! Ugly, deceitful, and cowardly!!! Ugly, deceitful, cowardly, and likely a very, very bad kisser!!!"
The gnome watches as Kul's arrow bounces harmlessly off the malignant melon, then looks down at his crossbow, shaking his head. He raises his scarred/tattooed forearm, middle finger at attention, at the fiend, while muttering a mixture of spite and pleading for justice against blasphemous balloons.
He calls up the shining Saratar.
The Saratar graces Pent with as much respect as it first did with the ugly schir.
"Aahhhahahaahhaaa!!! The Saratar has higher standards than the likes of you, you ugly bastard!!! You're so ugly how ugly is he? that even the Saratar wouldn't touch you with a ten-foot polearm!!!"
"A dorus," Mahdi breathes, mind flashing to all his studies. Immune to his lovely, lovely fire. Of course it is. Mahdi growls to himself and runs closer.
"Aldebert, Abadar's power may let you strike the ugly thing! Or weapons forged of cold iron!"[/b]
If the damned creature is no more than fifteen feet up, Mahdi sends a rainbow of flashing light straight up into the sky to wash over the thing.
But the bright lights seem to fizzle out before hitting the ugly div. Mahdi curses in Ignan.
Round 1
Ami thinks to give chase, but instead controls Yeen enough to move closer to Kul and the innocent that he brained.
Ami will cast Stabilize on the boy, just in case.
The creature continues to fly away, it's image vanishing as it does so.
"Watch for me if you will. You won't see me coming."
The boy is stable, though won't come to for a bit. There seem to be no visible threats nearby. Both the magical auras and evil fade as the creature presumably continues to move away.
Mahdi kicks viciously at a rock on the mound. "Damnation! Well... that is a creature from another plane, bringing its evil and lies to meddle here. I think we have not seen the last of it... but next time we shall be better prepared."
He shakes his head and goes to look at the boy-rat.
"An unpleasant thought. I wonder when it will be back?"
Aldebert looks down at the boy.
"Kul, was that really necessary? I understand your frustration, but did you have to knock him senseless?" He shrugs.
"OK if I heal him? I don't think he's a threat - doesn't detect as evil anyway."
If no one objects, he'll heal the poor kid.
if he's not fatigued. If he is fatigued, that gets cured and he does not get the bonus healing.
"Wake up boy and be comforted. I apologize for us knocking you out like that, but we had to control the situation and you kept casting spells and doing stuff."
He helps him to his feet.
"Now, we know the flying something is the real threat here. Do you know where it lives by chance? Or at least where it hunts?"
Pent sidles up to Mahdi, imitating the Ignan curses as best he can, for swear words are always learned first when acquiring a new language. He loses interest quickly, as he sounds nothing like the proficient profaner, so returns to the twitchy one, and the one the twitchy took out.
Getting up close and personal, Pent examines the wererat just as intently as the wereleopard. Finding nothing useful about the ratboy, he exposes the gum line, observing the teeth. He rubs his beard for a second, then plucks two rat whiskers, and tucks one of them away for further contemplation.
He stands back and lets Aldebert heal the boy proper.
"Watch for me if you will. You won't see me coming."
"Well, that sounds like a threat if I've ever heard one. We fixin' to hunt that thing down, or should we set Aldebert out with lemonade and a hammock, and wait for them to strike up conversation again?" Pent uses the whisker to poke around in his ear hair.
"An unpleasant thought. I wonder when it will be back?"
Aldebert looks down at the boy.
"Kul, was that really necessary? I understand your frustration, but did you have to knock him senseless?" He shrugs.
Kul blushes and says, "I stand by my decision -- especially considering the illusions."
"Under the circumstances, I understand why you did it," Mahdi sighs.
He watches the boy when he wakes. "What is your name?" he asks, after Aldebert has asked his questions.
Pent looks back and forth, Aldebert to Kul, Kul to Aldebert, Mahdi to Kul.
"I would have rather you struck that ugly head dead, instead of the unsteady teddy who fed us his breathy telltale that failed to convince us outright." Pent looks the boy over. "At least he's still alive, and in our company, rather than out here alone with that monstrosity."
Pent looks off at a distance, hoping the beast will/won't return.
"That head's nature is to sneak around, making other people fight for it, eh? What else does it do? Can it enter our dreams? Does it need to drink and eat? Do they flock together? Ooo, does it snore?"
Pent turns back to the much less interesting ratboy, and observes the awakening.
Yeenoghu sniffs at the injured ratboy, whiskers flicking to and fro and back again as he hedges sideways. He pauses, one overly large paw coming to rest lightly on the boy's head as he sniffs and then licks at his hair.
Ami seems indifferent to his cat's sniffing, already looking for the next hill to run to and scout.
He waits 'patiently' for the interrogation to end so that he might explore again.
The boy rubs his head while looking around, a bit confused at first, but then realizing what creature everyone is talking about, he perks up a bit and becomes a bit more serious.
"So it revealed itself did it. Or did all of you flush it out of its hiding spot? He looks around anticipating a response while quickly responding to the inquiries he can. My name is Buri. As for the creature I will tell you what I know once we find some shelter from this sun."
The boy motions off toward the Mill.
"Can we head back there or do you have other options for shade or shelter?"
"Nope, nope, that should be as good a place as any, and I can't say as I blame you for wanting to get out of this heat. Things are getting squishy, and I don't need to start growing fungus in my darker corners any time soon." Pent heads off to the mill with the others, intent on some shade.
Once interior, Pent inquires with Buri. "Alright, so. I'm not one to hang on the outskirts of civilization, let alone when a floating ugly is around and about, so perhaps you'd let us hear why you're here, and help us in any way you can regarding the beastie when it returns, or when we track it down."
Aldebert picks up his guisarme and continues to carry his loaded crossbow as he joins the others to the shade of the mill. He watches the sky however, and occasionally detects evil in that direction.
As the group walks, the boy continues to rub the now smaller bump on his head.
"I'm from these parts. Or at least that's what I gather. You see I was captured by the gnolls and enslaved when I was very young. How young I can't say. An old gnoll, an oracle you would call him, took an interest in me. Until all of you arrived I was his slave. Looking off into the sky, much as Aldebert has been.
As for that floating beast, he deceived my keeper. Under the guise of foretelling your arrival, the beast gained my master's trust. He forced me to use my abilities to confirm what the beast was telling him. When what I learned contradicted what the beast said I was punished. I don't know what happened to my master after the gnoll's were scattered and killed. I was too interested in escaping. The beast caught me off guard while I was trying to outwit the snake you all killed."
Once in the shade of the Mill, the boy's form shifts from a rat-like humanoid to a normal looking boy. He speaks a bit more while examining the stones of the Mill wall.
"I'm afraid I don't know where the beast has been hiding since it left my master's side. Quietly as if to himself, I was sure I left a marker." Finally after patting at several stones, the boy pulls one loose. From behind it he pulls a small wooden tube.
Although the tube looks of the type to hold scrolls, no magic is detected from within it. The boy slowly opens it and pulls several pages of tattered parchment from it.
Quietly, holding the bits of parchment. "I took these from my master as I escaped. If these writings are to be believed, and I do believe them, all of you are in great danger."
Pent perks up, as more threats of danger are lobbed at them. Pent looks at the others, curious as to who will take the papers and read them first.
If no one else steps up, Pent claps his hands together and opens them to Buri, in petition of papers for further inspection.
The writing on the parchment is easily visible, though only those familiar with the language of the gnolls have any idea what it says.
Ami seems disinterested in the parchments, hoping others can read what they say. He longs to run among the hills and considers a quick scouting trip while others talky-talk.
"Brother, should I stay here? Maybe I should scout over that hill? I probably should, huh? I just be running in the sun for a bit...I'll come right back..." ...Ami says, but there is no way he is coming 'right' back, not when there is just another hill to climb and land to scout and sun to run in.
Pent looks up from the parchments, then passes them around to those with gnoll-speak. He nods gravely. "Bad poetry. I suspected as much."
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Yeenoghu sniffs, then sneezes at the boring parchments, more than ready to run in the Sun with The One rather than stay here with the strange smelling ratboything.
He rubs past The Other; his tail brushes Stunted Tom's pointed red head on the way by, flicking sand into the ugly creature's over abundance of whiskers on his way by.
Aldebert takes one of the parchment, but cannot read it. He looks to his brother and sees the disinterest.
"I don't know. Sure, check that hill, but go no further! We'll be moving on before too long."
He turns to Mahdi. "Surely you can read this, uh, right?"
Mahdi agrees that the mill is a perfectly good place to stand in the shade, for those who are not blissfully immune to the heat like him.
He listens with a frown to Buri's story, then takes the notes from Pent.
"Of course I can read them," he says with his usual charming offhand arrogance. And Mahdi does so: he reads each note in order, aloud, so that the others can hear them.
When he's done, Mahdi frowns deeply. He dislikes the sound of this... some monster or demon of fire? Fighting fire with fire is all well and good, but Mahdi is unhappily aware that, like the doru they just ran afoul of, many fell creatures cannot be harmed by flame.
"Well," he says aloud, "this first bit is a clear reference to us, and to Lady Almah. Which makes me less inclined to treat this all as mere gnoll superstition... unless..."
Aldebert listens to the parchments contents. "I must admit, most of that doesn't make any sense to me now. That's the nature of premonitions, they tend to be a little vague to carry whatever meaning comes to mind at the time."
"This has a kernel of truth though - we did clear the city and there is great evil in that temple. I wonder what the warning is that will be written? I'd like to know that so we can heed it."
Aldebert smiles.
"Until then, I think we must hunt this invisible flying beast. Something like that can do great damage to a burgeoning city. Anyone have any ideas how we can track it down and kill it? Other than having it attack us again and getting lucky?"
"I must admit, I myself am at a loss. Short of wandering the desert detecting evil all day with Mahdi here ready to glitterdust it on sight."
"I must admit, I myself am at a loss. Short of wandering the desert detecting evil all day with Mahdi here ready to glitterdust it on sight."
Ami titters at his brother's misspeak.
He is silly at times.
"Brother, how can you see what what you cannot see to cast a spell upon? I'll let you ponder that riddle while we run."
With that and still giggling, Ami kicks Yeen into a run,sprinting as fast as they can to the nearest hill and looking about for gnolls and other dangers from atop it.
Perception
Then they will sprint full speed through the wind and sun back.
Kul seems lost in thought... and frustrated to be so.
"I don't know what it means, but it was written by the same person who wrote that they were betrayed by the floating head. That corroborates the boy's story."
"It sounds as if we may need protection from fire when we clear the basement. In the meantime, let's keep scouting and try to think up with some sort of trap for the floating head."
Pent taps a fingernail to a front tooth, listening to Mahdi try his best on translating gnoll.
"Wait, you said 'steal', but it sounds like you read it wrong. 'Fire and steel' sounds much more appropriate. Don't be so literal when you read gnoll. Gnolls can be quite nuanced when they wax poetic." Pent smiles a teacherly smile.
Turning to Aldebert, Pent lets his eyes look upward, then back to the halfling. "I could always steady-tate in the morning, and ask Sarah what she thinks about us pursuing Bubbletooth. Otherwise, I don't have a clue as to how to track something that doesn't leave footprints."
The age of the parchments vary. One or two look to have been written some time ago, while another looks to have been written in the last month. In all you'd guess that their age ranges from a few years to a few months. Looking off toward Ami and Yeen, the boy smiles.
"It looks as if your friend there is about ready to head out. I think I may just rest here in the shade for a bit. If I can manage it I'd prefer to travel at night, but if I must I can follow you."
As Yeen runs into runs toward the hills through the sun of the day, the wind shifts and the clouds begin to move from the towns perimeter, following the curving path of the river.
"If we cannot hunt the invisible foe, we might as well continue our survey." Aldebert stretches out a bit and checks his gear for travel.
"I don't think you need to join us unless you want to. Someone should enjoy the shade today." he grins at the boy.
He turns to the others. "Shall we continue on to the north as planned? Or should we search the ruins for our invisible foe?"
Ami races back to the party, trying to encourage Yeen to do a magnificent skid ending his full sprint.
Ride - skid stop
Ami says way too loudly in his excitement before returning to a more normal, somber tone.
"Brother! I saw shadows on the mountain!" Ami points to where he saw them. "We should go that way! I bet they are gnolls! We should give them the whatfor!"
Ami smashes his tiny fist into his tiny palm to demonstrate what the 'whatfor' means.
Yeen runs fast, then faster, spurred on by The One's urgency. The stop is sudden, sending a wave of sand spraying into the sky as they skid through the group. They nearly tumble into The Other in the process, but the agile feline pulls to the left instead and rolls to his feet. The One holds tight and stays in place as they right themselves again.
Yeen sits back on his haunches, twists to lick some sand out of his littermate's eyes. then begins to clean his paws.
1. The Other
2. Stunted Tom
3. Fiery Destroyer of Food
4. Reborn of the Sun
5. Ratboything
Pent adjusts his pants, expecting more of Sarah's Light in the day to come. When Ami and Yeen return excitedly, Pent looks to Aldebert in knee-jerk fashion. "So far, Almah's advice has shown solid, especially with the parchments. If we want to rest well tonight, I'm decent with further rounds of the surrounds. Ruins and unseeable sights, or shall we chase shadows?"
Travel toward the mountainside is hot. As the clouds shift there are moments of cooler air. Whatever calm is provided by these bits of respite is disturbed by the eerie shadow cast by the mountain as the sun begins to dip toward the horizon.
Perception Rolls:
Mahdi (normal)
Aldebert
Pent (low-light)
Amiamble (normal)
Yeenoghu (low-light)
Kul (normal)
Just as suddenly as the cat stopped it shifts, sniffing at the air. Atop Yeen, Ami seems to be focused on something in the shadows of the mountain side that no one else sees.
Ami says way too loudly in his excitement before returning to a more normal, somber tone.
"Brother! I saw shadows on the mountain!" Ami points to where he saw them. "We should go that way! I bet they are gnolls! We should give them the whatfor!"
Ami smashes his tiny fist into his tiny palm to demonstrate what the 'whatfor' means.
Aldebert grins at the thought and agrees with his brother as he grips his weapon. "Let's head over there and check it out - by all means!" He joins with the others (presumably) in following his brother - though once there all he can see is the gleam of his armor in the sun.
Ami looks over again at the mountain.
"Brother! Kul! Madhi! Short one! That shadow just moved, I am sure. It might not be gnolls that need to be slain, but another desert kitty come to play. It is probably nothing, but we should go look."
Ami and Yeen scamper off, taking to the weeds and grasses as they slowly approach.
Stealth (+4 more for Yeen if in undergrowth)
Kul sighs and begins trudging in the indicated direction. Looking back over his shoulder to the boy he knocked out earlier, Kul gives a bashful wave as he walks away. Clearly still feeling guilty for attacking him.
Convinced that the age of the parchments is genuine, Mahdi moves on to other problems, such as how one strikes an invisible foe. "My shining dust is effective enough, but I would suggest that each one of us pick up a small bag of flour or chalk powder when we return to base. It is not the match of the arcane arts, but in a pinch, for the desperate, it suffices."
"As apology for our misguided assault on you..."[/b] Mahdi presses a single gold coin into the boy's filthy hand. (Careful not to touch skin to skin himself.)
When Ami declares something seen, Mahdi grunts to himself and sets off with the others, though not without a backwards look at the mound and the boy. Strange place, this. With divs and rat-boys around.
As the group moves toward the mountainside, there doesn't appear to much movement from the rock.
Aldebert trudges along, keeping his crossbow out and loaded for now. Likely as not there'll be some distance between us when we clash. he sees his brother moving fast and silent through the underbrush (or maybe not with that stealth roll!)
Perhaps Amiamble will meet them in combat before the rest of us!
Aldebert concentrates on keeping up - moving his little legs as fast as he can in his armor and other gear.
Pent gives the boy a good shot in the arm, to let him know there are no hard feelings, and insinuating that he could take him in street fight, should it come to that. Then the gnome bolts after the others, casually lagging behind.
Pent enjoys the exercise as best as he can, running across the hills.
He keeps his eyes peeled, too, hoping to yell about trouble ahead, before a head of trouble forces him to yell out.
As the clouds continue to shift, they settle with the shade of the mountainside to provide respite from the desert heat.
As the group moves toward the mountainside, there doesn't appear to much movement from the rock.
Ami and Yeen inch forward, both not to make much sound (and potentially scare off a potential mate for Yeen), but also to give time for his stumpy legged awesome brother (and others) to catch up.
Stealth (+4 more when undergrowth)