Kevros sees the exchange between Quince and Angeus, places his crossbow over his shoulder, lifts up his left eyebrow, and smiles with a big grin at their embrace.
Tristan is too far away keeping watch to see this, but get'er Quince ;)
Kevros brings down his crossbow off his shoulders and shrugs. Then he goes to an opposite position of Tristan to also keep watch holding his repeater at the ready.
The monks put away their weapons and keep their own counsel and camp site.
The dragon bows its head to Angeus when she recognizes it.
The woman takes off her furs, showing that she is indeed a catfolk and one of the furs actually resides on her naturally. She works her salves, herbs and medicine easing Saren into a calm rest. "He should be better tomorrow, well he should be concious and able to ride with some help. Tell me what is your mission here in the Stolenlands." She speaks to no one particular but loud enough for most to hear.
Not answering the question, at least not yet, Kevros responds, "Thank you for healing Saren, I am not too sure if he would have had a chance of making it without your healing touch. I have always admired Catfolk's graceful gait but the places I have been, there isn't too many of your kin . So I apologize if I am staring too much. And my name is Kevros, and yours?"
From where she's preparing her own gear for camp, Angeus eavesdrops on Kevros' conversation, not having met a catfolk herself before.
Quince over hears the conversation and looks about his companions feeling a little guilty for a moment. I wounder how they would act if they knew about me. Whatever I am . . . He continues setting camp.
"Your welcome Kevros, I come from the East in the plains. Saren had come through there a few months ago and I had healed several of his traveling companions. That must be why your dragon tracked me down. You may call me Katrina. I wander where the wind takes me and heal those that serve nature well. Please admire me as long as you wish, it is a compliment." She blushes and you can see a deepening of her fur on her cheeks.
"Now that I think of it I may know his connection, do any of you have alcohol of any kind?" She asks as her memory starts to serve her well at least a bit.
Tristan comes wondering back in to prepare to bed for the night.
Katrina was it, I am Tristan Morgan. My family has lived and hunted the lands here for years. I think we have some wisky we found.
He comes and sits for a bit with the others.
"Tristan Morgan good to meet you, good to meet you all. You do seem to be good people. Can I have the whiskey please?" She smiles and nods towards Tristan as she greets him, then she looks around the group for the one with the whiskey.
Keeping alert but also speaking to Katrina, "Nice to meet you as well Katrina. Yes, please take some whiskey whoever has it!" Kevros looks as well.
Walter pulls out the whiskey and brings it over to Katrina. She nods her thanks as the dwarf simply returns to his seat next to the fire. She slowly gives Saren a few sips as she prays quietly over him.
An hour goes by and Saren actually wakes up.
He groggily gets up in his bedroll with a hand to his head, "heeey, what's going on here! Who are you, wait don't I know you?" Groggy, how about tipsy if not drunk, he does not try to get up anymore and actually goes right back to sleep.
Kevros looks at Saren and then back to Katrina, "Really good work Katrina, he'll probably be on his feet or ready to move out tomorrow! Katrina, if he is truly back on his feet, do you think he will be ready for a pickup in travel without relapsing? We really need to speed things along for we are spending too much time in our current effort."
"Saren should be good for a few days, but his connection to his god or something along that line makes him need to have alcohol. I can go procure a large shipment to have it down here in the Stolenlands but would there be a good place to store it?" Katrina asks and offers.
Quince listens, "What god does Saren serve? Would it have anything to do with the dragon mark over his chest or . . . a dragon fighting a giant?" Realizing that he is not being completely clear he continues. "I mean I saw a vision when I was trying to help Saren of a giant fighting a dragon. . . I wonder if you had any idea . . . I am no to visions."
Kevros nods at Katrina's comment, "Does he need this alcohol right away or can it wait? It sounds like it can wait?"
"That does not ring any bells with me, I would suggest to ask Saren when he wakes tomorrow. Though I will ponder on it. Caydin Caile is Saren's patron." Katrina offers.
Kevros nods, "How is the whiskey Katrina? As for your questions, we will answer them in time because this is the Stolenlands and under siege by many. And we are here to stabilize the region."
"The whiskey smells strong. Well saying these lands are under siege might be an overstatement but it is good to hear of some that want to stabalize it. Do you not have a healer? If what you say is true I can offer my services to aid you towards that end?" Katrina says looking more intrigued by your group.
Kevros nods, "I would be more than happy if you accompany us because we do need a healer. However, my colleagues also have to agree." Kevros looks at Angeus, Tristan, and Quince.
Katrina smiles and goes back to tend Saren to give the group space and time to decide.
Having finished with her camp preparations, Angeus walks over to Kevros "Did I hear right? The cat-lady wants to join up with us?"
Kevros nods, "Yes, she wants to join us. What do you think? What does your woman intuition tell you? After all, we need a more talkative and a focus healer than Walter. He started off great but he does not say much these days."
A healer will be needed when we bring the fight to the stag lord. I say welcome her aboard. She did already help one of us.
"Well,my woman's intutition agrees with Tristan's " Angeus says with a grin "For the help she gave Saren...I guess we just need to make sure we're well stocked with whiskey."
Kevros nods, "Ok Katrina, you can accompany us! We will have to wait until we are back home for the shipment of whiskey. I do not want it sent there when we are gone and I do not want to be lugging it on the road unless my fellow colleagues out vote me. Saren will just have to get past his addiction for a while for we are all uncomfortable. And perhaps the monks will have some sort of alcoholic beverage? Not all monks vow not to drink alcohol or so I hear anyway." Kevros looks at Quince... "Oh wait, Quince do agree that Katrina should accompany us?"
"Huh whats that . . . Whiskey no thanks." Quince looks up realizing that was not the question. After some prompting, "Yes certainly we have need of a healer. Though you Caydens should known we don't hold revels every night. "
She laughs then says after she calms down, "For heaven's sake I am no Cayden worshipper. Nature and the world speaks to me and spirits keep my company, I am likely to act like no cleric you have seen before. I only ask that you consult me before dealing with any plants and understand if you need healing you will come to me, if I enter the fray it will be from afar with a bow." She giggles to herself some more as she dabs Saren's face.
The next morning Katrina has made a stew of somekind that smells delicious. Delicious enough for the monks to be sitting around waiting for breakfast. "Sorry I only have one bowl," she says, then the monks each pull out one of their own with spoons and forks attached to it by string. She ladles out healthy portions to each of the monks, herself, and anyone else awake and with a bowl. Saren is groggy but awake with a metal bowl and eating like he hasn't eaten for days.
"Thank you Katrina for fixing, healing me. Also thank you for breakfast... it is delicious!" Saren slowly says his thanks between mouthfuls of the stew, he looks around with a question obviously on his mind but keeps it to himself and keeps eating.
Once he has had two bowls he offers it to the group if they did not have their own tools. He gets up slowly and stretches around for a few minutes and then goes over to his dragon and scratches in all the good spots, taking off dead skin and removing scales as needed.
I seem to only have a cup. Guess I got used to eating these rations. I will use your bowl Saren, Thank you.
Tristan goes over to get some stew.
Very good Katrina. Well even if your a terrible healer maybe you could stay on as our cook. He says in jest.
So we going to make it to this monestary today or what? He looks to the monks.
Night wing speaks up in response to Tristan, "That is always the hope to find it today. Once this glorious stew has been eaten up we are ready."
Woken later than usual by the wonderful smell of Katrina's cooking, Angeus sit and stretches, cat-like.
Grabbing her bowl she hurries to get her share, stuffing a hot mouthful in to her mouth, chewing and uttering a low murmur of appreciation "Mmmm, 'ish goo', 'trina" she says around the mouthful "'minds me o' ma's"
Happily munching away, Angeus walks to a nearby stone where Quince sits and flops down next to him.
Quince looks up with a smile. "Hey there."
Kevros smiles, "With Quince's agreement, it's official, welcome to the party Katrina!"
Kevros wakes up to the nice smells of Katrina's cooking. Not having a home cooked meal since leaving the outpost, Kevros wakes up quickly to go get a bowl before it's all gone. "MMMM, smells good Katrina!" Kevros pours himself some stew on to his mess kit's plate and takes a bite, "Wow! Even tastes better than it smells good! You are definitely a great addition to our party! Where did you learn to cook this good?"
"Well my mother and the other women of my tribe helped us all to learn many skills including how to cook. I have had a few years of practice cooking for my husband and children. But those good times ended abruptly and through his disgrace I left the tribe as well." She puts on a good face but is visibly shaken by the memories. She takes a few bites to focus on the food to distract herself.
Kevros frowns, "I am sorry for bringing back bad memories." Other than complimenting the food with sounds and gestures, Kevros remains quiet to refrain from bringing back any more bad memories.
"It's alright it is something I live with, it was just unexpected." She says after she takes a deep breath and starts to clean up the cooking equipment.
The group packs up their gear and begins to explore again.
Yes lets be off now. Time to find the monastary.
The next area you begin to explore has a very tall Sycamore that is a dominant landmark.
Though even more unexpected is the uncommon dead bodies of little blue men with bulbous heads and small reptilian humanoids, it seems that the remains of the 'war' is mostly to the South of the old Sycamore.
As you explore in the Southern region you see many of the victims of their little war on both sides. Then you see a trio of blue men taking down one of the reptilian ones.
Generic description: This squat humanoid seems to be nearly all head—an unfortunate circumstance, considering how ugly its puffy blue face is.
Descended from even smaller fey, the mites are among the most pitiful and craven dwellers of the dark. Hideously ugly, even goblins have been known to mock mites for their homely appearances, mockery most mites take to heart and nurture for weeks, months, or even years in their tiny homes, until their distress and anger finally overcome their natural cowardice and impel them forth on short-lived bouts of bloody vengeance from the doubtful safety of a spider's back.
Mites, once closer to the strange realm of the fey, have grown larger and stockier after countless generations spent on the Material Plane. Yet still, their stature places them at the bottom of the pile in the dangerous caverns in which they live. Their traditional enemies are dwarves and gnomes, particularly the svirfneblin of the deep underground caves. The one thing that gives them a significant edge over an enemy in a fight is their natural ability to empathize with normally mindless vermin—mites are particularly fond of spiders, centipedes, and cave fishers, and a mite colony usually has a few of these far more dangerous monsters on hand to defend the group.
A mite is 3 feet tall and weighs 40 pounds.
Generic description: This short, reptilian humanoid has scaled skin, a snout filled with tiny teeth, and a long tail.
Kobold coloration varies even among siblings from the same egg clutch, ranging through the colors of the chromatic dragons, with red being the most common but white, green, blue, and black kobolds not unheard of.
Quince invokes his best S' ala "This one syays when evil fey and evil lizards fight let them destroy each other." He grows serious, "The little blue ones can curse you. So becareful."
"I have to get me an everful mug! So do we want to investigate the sycamore or move on?" He jests as he tries to let his head rest on the cool scales of his dragon.
Kevros is very curious of the large tree but the group really has been getting into way too many tangents, "I really want to investigate this tree and area further but we have been getting side tracked with too many tangents. Let's add this to our map for future focused exploration. What do you all think?"
Quince nods and takes notes to add to the map."Yes I agree to many interesting things of note. What do we want to do with these trouble makers. "
Angeus smiles back at Quince's smile, saying nothing as her mouth was full of stew. She remains beside him, however, saying little besides the occasionaly grunt of appreciation for the stew.
Finally finished, she smile shyly at Quince then rises quickly and begins her to help with the teardown of the camp.
Knowledge(nature)
Knowledge (local)
Seeing the reptiles, Angeus states "Those be the kobolds we've been told about, I've heard tell quite a bit about them ...."
A bit embarrassed at her own knowledge and lengthy speech, Angeus flushes and then says "The blue critters....I don't know anything about them."
"We can figure out which side of this 'war' to support later, our focus right now should be to find Nightwing's monestary."
The battle between the three mites and one kobold happens about 200 feet away from the tree. With no one acting the kobold takes down one mite but then the two mites take down the kobold. The mites begin to strip down the kobold. If no one still intercedes the mites grab their fallen as well and see the group they scurry towards the Sycamore tree.
Then if no one still acts the group heads...
I agree, they are likely fighting over territory or some other matter. No reason to fight both sides ourselves. We can come back and investigate later. Maybe oneside will have one the conflict by then.