"Well why oppose an oppressive regime if yer not willing to do something free and spontaneous." Bazzle drops clothes and runs to the waters as well.
After their skinny dip in celebration, the group settles down for the night. They pick a spot a decent ways away from the oncoming tide. A little bit of cooking later, which they make sure the food is properly cooked through, and then it's time for bed. Rexandi takes the watch, which starts off really pleasantly as the yellow sun sets over the horizon. Then about an hour after dark, a sudden beam of bright light shoots down from the sky and illuminates the spot Rexandi was standing in just seconds ago. This beam of light immediately wakes everyone up. The light is almost painfully bright, but beyond twenty feet or so, the wilds are so incredibly dark that even Rexandi can't peer through it.
Aster gets up, wincing on reflex even though there is no pain. "What is that?" Aster stands next to Rexi, squinting up, she'll breathe in deep to see if there is any odd smells.
"I... I don't know," says Rexandi with a wince. "Some kind of moonbeam? I'm dazzled."
Aster smells... reptile and ferret. It's a faint scent coming upwind, from the West.
Rexandi thinks she was targeted by a Spotlight spell, which has a very long range. The spell must have partially failed, since otherwise the light would be following Rexandi wherever she went. It should disappear in a few minutes.
Ederion reaches for his extracts, and peers around into the darkness - "Does anyone see anything?"
Ederion can't see anything beyond the twenty feet from the beacon, but he does hear very soft footsteps approaching. They're quite close, probably about to enter the light in a moment, from the West.
Rexandi says softly, "Some kind of spell to light the area - someone is looking for us. Stay alert."
"Some of you who are good at hiding should try that, in case this is trouble." Aster is not good at hiding, and doesn't know if they are being watched already so is unwilling to become a smallish rat either.
Rexandi doesn't need to be told twice, and looks for a spot to hide.
As usual though she just stands around looking stupid.
Bazzle shifts around the group knowing taller folk loose sight the smaller folk. He shifts away from whatever approaches from the direction Ed is looking.
Rexandi hides behind a scrawny tree, which does little to conceal her. Bazzle has slightly more luck, mainly because of his smaller frame.
The creature walks in with a hand trying to shield its eyes from the terribly bright light. It's a halfling, the man looks quite young with his baby face. He has the hairiest feet ever known, bright red in colour. He's wearing a tunic and slacks made of pale leather. Without introducing himself, he takes out a flask of clear liquid and begins casting a spell.
Ederion quaffs his Extract of Invisibility, and moves away from his position - "State your intents, or your life is forfeit!" - he warns the stranger.
Aster looks into the dark at the halfling weaving fingers to try and figure out what he is casting.
Ederion turns invisible and shouts his warning. The halfling pays him no heed.
Aster identifies the spell as a desecrate spell! The halfling is turning the area into unholy land! The flask disappears from his hand, and suddenly it rains unholy water!
"He's desecrating the area. This..." she holds her hand out as raindrops slam into her skin. "... is unholy water." pointing at the halfling "Stop Him!"
She whispers a prayer of grace and then lets her wererat nature grow fur, teeth, claws, and nose.
Invisible Ederion says no more, and creeps up to the halfling as he draws his rapier.
He stands close and ready to attack in case their apparent opponent tries to cast again.
Ederion sneaks up to stand right in front of the Halfling, who has no hope of spotting him. The Halfling however just turns tail and starts running flat out. He's surprisingly quick for his species, as he runs out of the light and back into the darkness.
"Desecrate and run... this is probably not a good place to stand." Aster finishes her transformation into furry Aster, then moves away from the raining unholy water.
"is he preparing the site for an attack, raising the dead, does this have anything to do with us or is it just chance we were here. The spotlight wasn't exactly on Rexi... any ideas?"
"Are we chasing him or running away? Staying . . . I am not sure we want to stay where he is prepping the area for evil"
"Gathering our stuff and leaving sounds like a great idea... if the undead don't start ripping through the ground any second... well still a good idea, just not a timely one." Aster babbles.
Dagger drawn, Tasha points towards the halfling. "I don't know what's going on, and I don't like it, but we can't just leave this here, right?", she says. "A problem like that is just going to come and bite us in the butt in the future!", before darting off after the halfling. I hope Ed is somewhere around. I can barely see here, but my legs are a lot longer.
Tasha races out of the beam of light in hopes of catching up with the halfling. Unfortunately, she's essentially blind in the darkness, and she can't hear any footsteps. She can hear the faint sounds of voices ahead of her. It sounds like distant yelling, though she isn't sure what's being said. There is one thing that she can spot now that she's out of the light. A tiny flame, probably a long ways away.
The unholy water ceases to rain down. A faint miasma of unholy energy permeates a twenty foot radius of the campsite. The beam of light continues to shine incredibly bright, encompassing roughly the same area.
Rexandi isn't entirely sure what's going on, but she knows that she doesn't like it. She lobs a web bolt at the halfling.
As the Halfling has already run away from Rexandi and out of her vision, her spell will not function as she intends. She will need to either close the distance to be able to see him, or get really lucky when targeting an area that he might be in.
Rexandi casts dancing lights around Tasha so that she can at least see a little, though it does illuminate her as a potential target.
"Is this land special to us. Its clearly not a place conducive to rest."
"It is unlikely in all this open space we are traveling through that they have picked our campsite to shine a light on it and then desecrate it ." Aster thinks "We need to find out why."
Ederion dashes into the darkness after the damned halfling.
Tasha gets a bit more light to shine the way. The Halfling is only a dozen feet, maybe slightly more, away from her. Ederion races out of the camp alongside, ending up right behind him. Halflings normally can't run so fast, but it isn't impossible for a particularly athletic Halfling to accomplish the same running speed as the average human.
Now out of the beam of light, Ederion can see significantly better. He can see the flame in the distance, which looks like a lantern. It's pretty far away, but it seems to be moving slowly towards the group. Further to the right, Ederion sees several silhouettes hopping and shouting. With his incredible elven ears, he can hear what they're saying. It's in the Draconic tongue, although it's a weird dialect that he's only heard once, from the Kobold who died in the Aboleth's lair. They're shouting "Run run! Bigfeet behind you! Faster!"
Ederion also sees the silouette of something larger behind them, but he isn't sure what it is. It doesn't look humanoid, more like a quadruped, kind of like a giant dog or something.
Tasha doesn't notice, but Ederion sees a silhouette hurl a javelin into the sky. It soars an incredibly long distance, the plummets down right into Tasha's thigh. A great cheer erupts from the enemy.
Aster runs after Tasha.
Bazzle looks about. "I don't think the halfling is alone." Bazzle moves stealthily toward the enemies.
Ederion flanks the area where the creatures are located, quaffing his mutagen as he goes - "You are in for a surprise little ones!" - he shouts out in a guttural voice, attempting to create a distraction, and allow his companions to organize themselves.
Bazzle slinks forwards at a slow pace, keeping low to the grass to cover his approach. Aster races past him faster than she's ever moved before. In the distance, Ederion's voice bellows, and a shriek of surprised rises. Ederion is close enough to get a good look at all the enemies. Most of them are kobolds, but there's a few lizardfolk in the mix as well. A giant ferret is in the back, wearing a saddle that must seat at least four kobolds at a time. The kobolds are carrying tiny hammers and simple leather armour. They don't appear to be much of a threat. The Lizardfolk however are clearly stronger. Their gear is of much better make, with proper hide armour, bucklers, and a heavy warhammer each. Each enemy bears a holy symbol of Asmodeus.
In a different Draconic dialect, a Lizardfolk says "Scaless unseen! We must fight them off." But the Halfling replies "No. Run run first, then fight fight. Two birds one rock. You see, you see." The Lizardfolk quickly bows to the Halfling in affirmation.
That's what I get running straight into things. Damnit., Tasha grunts to herself as she yanks the javelin out of her shoulder, just as Ederion roars. Spinning the weapon in her hand, she nods at the direction of the voice, then runs to the nearest tree, shield raised.
As for the armour, the only thing I DO get is the ability to move normally in full plate (e.g. x4 run and 30ft movement), so that doesn't help with fatigue. Shield would do for now!
Tasha pulls out the javelin and sidesteps into the shelter of a skinny tree, then raises her shield in case another damned javelin gets launched.
Rexandi moves up behind Tasha, using her for cover, and invokes her healing hex on the warrior.
Tasha's wound from the javelin is healed up, leaving only a minor bruise.
The Kobolds, and Halfling shriek and race as fast as they can away from the Silver Ravens. The Lizardfolk ride upon the giant ferret and follow behind.
"If we rush after them, we could be led into a trap." Aster says as she catches up to anyone not running after them. "I'd rather us gather our belongings and move on as quickly as we can, but each of them were wearing a holy symbol to Asmodeus. Which worries me. I think we should get into our armor and follow at a more reasonable safe pace. To see why they were here."
"I agree with Aster, they used magic specifically to try to light up our camp, we can't stay here. They'll just come back with more preparation," says Rexandi, even though she's desperately tired.
"I am tailing them a ways, then I will double back"
You can see the remaining of his gear rising into the air and disappearing before your eyes, as the elf gathers his things.
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Most of the group heads back and begins to pack up camp. They come to an unfortunate realization when they reach the seashore less than a mile away. Either they will have to set up camp again by this shore, or they will have to begin a longer journey through the shallows until they reach the next island. The wading may last several hours, and may require some swimming.
Meanwhile Ederion tails the kobolds with his invisibility. They do not travel far, only up a hill and then behind a boulder. The Kobolds look out upon the beach, where the lights of camp dwindle. A small light continues to approach the camp slowly.
One of the Kobolds says "Soon they be dead by DeathGoat." He is immediately shushed.
"Do not speak its name. It will hear us." Says the Halfling. "But yes, big feet has no chance. It will eat their souls. Then we wait for it to leave, and we takes their stuffs."
"What if they win?" Asks another kobold.
The Halfling replies "They won't. But if they do, then they be weak. Then we do a fight-fight, or a grab-fight."
"Or both." Says one more Kobold, who rubs his scaley palms together.
"Or maybe we have magic too powerful, and DeathGoat decides it is easier to kill ALL of small feet!" - Ederion shouts with a raucous laughter, from his hiding place.
"Seems crazy. Do you want company Ed?" Bazzle waves a hand from his hidden location.