Simon will stick with Card and help him out in all the hustle and bustle, making sure he gets everything. It can be hard to read with so many people going on, and he wants to make sure he doesn't miss any announcements being called over the whole camp where he couldn't see the person speaking.
If Card is down for it, he'll look for some plants to weave into mats for then to sleep on, making a collection big enough for their group and then handing off any extras to other Goodwin's.
Simon you find some long grass that you hope could make a decent mat. I probably won't be the best, and it takes you long enough to collect the grass much less weave the mat, and its already evening, you scarcely finish one sleeping mat.
Quassine walks up on Card and Simon, using the muscles in his tentacles, he spreads his tentacles apart showing his mouth so Card can hear what he is saying, "So what do you guys think of the festivities? Simon, I see a lot of skins and maybe you can get one to make a banner?"
She looks up to see Golden Ram, and comments to those nearby, but then goes back to her work.
Miyu stays nearby paying particular interest to the Goats with instruments, and allows them to dote on him, not that he can do much else besides avoid them entirely.
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Some of the goatlings take a passing interest in your painting, but do not go out of their way to intrude. You spend time improving as you can, but the water based pigments made from flowers, or crushed insects on the rock, is a poor substitute for oil based paints, and a canvas. And the lighting. Soon the lighting grows too poor to effectively paint, even with torchlight.
"I believe Maks will be needed to talk directly to Golden Ram. We may have to wait for him to call for us. Perhaps we should find Bavari and ask what the proper protocol would be for this." Nathan then starts looking to see where Maks disappeared to and for Bavari.
"Good idea. Gonna need some paint, though..."
He looks around the encampement, and as chance would have it, there is someone nearby with paint.
Simon approaches Makoto with a skin in one hand and a blunted Javelin in the other with it leaning on his shoulder.
"Hey there, gorgeous. Don't suppose I could trouble you for a spot of that paint could I? Or at least you could tell me where you found an indigo plant out here. Beautiful work, by the way. Wish my tail could do that.
If Card stays with him, he'll jokingly ask if he could borrow his tails to do the same some time.
Brothers Lotham and Nathan
Overhearing Lotham and Nathan talking about speaking to the Golden Ram, "Brothers Lotham and Nathan, I spoke to Bavari earlier and he said that it is customary to wait for the Golden Ram to speak to us. Taking the initiative to speak to him before being invited will both be rude and not possible for the guards will stop us."
Xanya wanders around the camp trying to find who was at the camp in the woods earlier, what happened there and who made the sign in the sky. "I guess some of you were at the camp in the forest earlier. What did you learn? Do they want anything? Do they know what happened to the monastery that was supposed to be here? What about the neighouring Humans and Dwarves? Did you come to an agreement about anything? Who are Bowki and Bavari, we only heard about the Golden Ram from Rahaan." She'll give whoever she is talking to opportunity to respond in between her questions, though if they say they weren't at the camp in the forest she'll excuse herself and move on, letting them tag along if they want.
Simon
The work in question is a portrait of Goodwin, from memory on a large, flat rock. The colors are off, and the shading is imperfect, but it's thte best she can do on short notice, from memory, with makeshift tools.
Maks shakes her head, tails twitching in time. "I actually just have been using various flowers. I borrowed a mortar from... Well, that's going to be impossible to return directly." her tails swish, slightly annoyed. "I've been collecting flowers since I arrived... some are good for pigments, others less so. It's kind of a mixed bag. You're welcome to whichever colors you'd like, but I don't have much of each. I'm sort of learning as I go." she offers.
"It's all going to be water-based until I can find linseeds or something. And I'd be quite pleased if I could find some vials to store the paint... but for now, what I don't use is wasted, so take whatever you like. I'd loan you my brush, but.." her tails flick slowly.
As Xanya approaches her burgeoning crowd of paint-borrowers, Maks looks over to her. "Oh. Hey." she says, seeming a bit distracted. She looks over the painting, then nods. "Bowki is the new leader of the goatlings we didn't kill... I think. He's the one I shared the ability to communicate with. Bavari was another group's shaman I think. I did the same with him so Nathan's group could communicate." she pauses. "Hm. That's a lot of questions... one at a time."
She seems to count off with her fingers, "I'll answer that one after I answer the others. Yes. No. Yes. Somewhat." she pauses.
"They want a lot of things. Mostly to be left alone, but they see us as an opportunity to make things better. They've got a treaty with dwarves and humans to the south, but they keep encroaching on that treaty; they want us to help them set that right. I also agreed to try to communicate with the rest of our group not to build here; the lands belong to the Goatlings and are Sacred to them. I have not found out a better word for them, though we really should." she suggests, "They don't have any information for us on the Monastery. It could be at the top of a mountain or at the bottom of the lake for all we know." she shrugs. "They did say that things became significantly more dangerous if we opted to travel into the mountains, though. I hope no one decided to do that."
"We learned that they're going to hold a festival here, which they do each year, to summon spirits that should bless them. They're a warrior people. They seem to enjoy and appreciate art. They thought we were a test sent for their young by the spirits." she taps her lip. "They eat oat cakes, don't care for fish, but can eat it. Aaaaand... they seem quite friendly when you get a chance to know them. Any more specific questions..?"
Xanya smiles. "Thank you for your information Maks. It looks like you've managed to find out even more than we have. That is a good thing. Being able to share our language with them is quite useful. I am able mix a concoction to understand them, but sadly that only works one way. We have started to learn their language though. Speaking of languages, do you know Terran? We found a ring with an inscription in Terran." She pauses for a reply. "Sadly neither of us have been able to uncover much to bring us closer to finding out mentor. Maybe the spirits they plan to summon will be able to tell us more?" Again Xanya pauses. "As for negotiating, I would rather prefer to continue the quest of finding Goodwin rather than help the goatlings against their neighbors. Though then again it might be that we have little hope of rescuing our mentor in our current capacity, so doing good things while we collect more experience might be a good idea. We don't really have any leads in our search anyway. Do you know that the goatlings are in the right in this though? We haven't talked to the humans and dwarves. There are always two, or three, or four or... you get the point, there are always more than one side to a conflict.
"Mmmm... actually, none of my group has any of the elemental languages. They just never really came up. Sorry." she shakes her head. "The goats seem to venerate elementals though, so maybe one of their shamans will be able to read it for you?" she tilts her head.
She pauses for a moment. "I do recognize that they could easily be lying. We spoke of that on the way here. Not that we think they're outright lying, but more likely that they're fallible creatures. That's why we were thinking of working as negotiators as opposed to joining them in some sort of brawl. Learning about the politics and such of the area, as well as making ourselves generally useful will lead to contacts." her tails swish slowly, "As it stands, we don't really know anyone who can tell us anything. I was kind of hoping to create a network that would allow us to gather information quickly, which we could then send out to the others. I'm not sure how successful we'll be... or even if the others are going to go along with it, overall. But I really do think that diplomacy and reputation are the first things we need to work out with the denizens. Information is priority one... and we can't rely on any information we have until we are trusted by trustworthy sources."
Xanya nods "Knowing, ah yes. Knowing is good. I want to know everything! Though sadly there are infinite things to know and getting to know them all would take infinite time. Not only could we learn how to find and free Goodwin, but also how to avoid this terrible sunlight hurting my skin." Xanya rubs her arms as if freezing, though it's the sunlight on her skin she is worried about then makes sure her darkness is still in place. The gesture draws attention to what little of her clothing remain. Her night tunic wasn't exactly modest to start with, but now that it has been ripped open in several places and drenched in blood it's hardly concealing much at all.
"I would prefer to go out in the world somewhere to find clues, but alas we need to know where to go first. Hopefully their spirits or the Golden Ram can give us clues. Then we could send you information through Jovar from our travels while you could send us information from what you learn through your negotiations."
"I'm not sure that's what we'll wind up doing." Makoto shakes her head. "It all depends on how things go, I suppose." since Xanya has darkened her workspace, she hasn't been painting since her arrival, instead focusing on her. As she draws attention to the physical, as opposed to the mental, one of Makoto's ears flick slightly in annoyance. "Does no one in your group have the capacity to utilize prestidigitation?"
Xanya taps her chin then looks over at Simon. "Thinking about it, Simon did use it to clean off his hands earlier. Noone offered to use it after the fight though. I guess we were to busy rushing around. Would be nice to be clean for once. The time since we came here has been rough. I don't know how to use it at least. Could either of you help me out?"
Maks nods. "Definitely. Hygiene is quite important. We don't really know what sort of things might happen if we walk around covered in just the sap, let alone other people's blood. I'm just waiting for someone to develop hay fever. her tails swish as she goes through the motions of summoning the minor energy that will very likely be viewed by the goats as still another spirit, even though they have arcanists. "Clean." she says as she focuses the energy over Xanya. "Which way is your group planning to head after the ceremony?"
Xanya smiles and strokes her now clean skin and clothes. Her eyes seemingly blaze even stronger "Thank you so much, it feels much better now. As for where we are heading, we haven't really talked about it. As I said I was hoping either some of the goatlings or their spirits would give us some clues about where to go. I guess we'll wait until after the audience with the Golden Ram tomorrow morning before we decide. Have you decided to stick around and negotiate then? No matter I imagine heading down the mountain is for the best, through the goatling lands. Though I imagine both the humans and the dwarves won't take kindly to my kind."
"I really wanted to say something, but I didn't want to offend..."
Simon smirks slightly.
He also halts on his borrowing of the paint in their current lack of light.
"I had hoped to be part of any diplomatics that go on, if I may. I'd like to think that it's one of my strong suits. I feel like after so long, Goodwin would appreciate if we were doing good in the world when others of out group find him. I'd really like to stay and help resolve their conflict."
He gives a charming smile.
Nathan wanders in to the area and says, "I was wondering why it was dark over this way. Good to see you again Xanya. Maks, have you filled Xanya and Simon in on what we have learned? I am eager to speak to Golden Ram but we must wait for his invitation to speak to him. Then we can decide what we will be doing."
Looking at Nathan you would never know he'd spent the night rough in the woods and fought a battle. His clothing is immaculate, it looks brand new, if 10,000 years out of style.
Simon
"I would assume that anyone who has interest in meeting with Golden Ram tomorrow will have the opportunity."
Nathan
"I believe so. I'm not entirely certain that I have, but I filled in much of what I recalled. If you'd like, you can fill us all in on what you know and remember, that way we have less to worry about when it comes to forgetting."
Later
Maks partake in the fruity oat mash... perhaps partake a little too much. While she looks somewhat confused at the sour taste, and pauses occasionally to lick her muzzle, she finishes a pair of bowls before joining in the festivities.
For her part, she does her best to add to the music, and tries to join in with Tavros when it comes to dancing as the goats do.
The Fox eidolon, Miyu also joins in. He seems to have a talent for drums, despite his shape. He moves swiftly with his paws and tail, trying to keep up with the proper beats he learned while watching the goats teach Tavros. After a bit, he'll leave the goat to his drum, not wanting to replace him in his festivities... but like Maks, he had his own itches to scratch.
Goatling Camp: Evening/Night, ceremony already started.
Aury'tss finally manages to wade through the much taller goatlings to find familiar faces of the others who visited the goatling camp.
"I wasn't expecting there to be so many people here when we started walking over! And not so much dancing, either, I nearly got stepped on a few times!" The kobold says to whoever she can find.
"I'm glad I found some of you though, our group has only been able to figure out how to say very simple things to the goatlings. Is the big one their leader?"
The much taller, and much gruffer, Hseir walks close behind the kobold, moving goatlings aside as he cuts his way through the crowd.
"I too, am glad we have reunited. Anything we need to know, guys?"
Xanya joins the singing and dancing, doing her best to follow along with the goatlings, a few muttered cantrips helping her along the way. She also partakes in the various things offered, well aware of the fact that sometimes a magical mixture can go a long way in achieving what you want.
Xanya turns towards Aury'tss. "Yes, the Golden Ram is their leader. Apparently it's rude to approach him, but he'll talk to us in the morning. Them attacking us was all a big misunderstanding. They thought we were a challenge sent by their ancestors and now they honor their fallen. I was able to understand them through a nice elixir, but Maks was able to one up me by sharing our language with a couple of them. A few of us have started learning their language, I imagine that will be much easier now that one of them speaks common. This whole platau is apparently a sacred area to them and through this cermony they will call their spirits for guidance. Hopefully the spirits can guide us as well to find our master. Jovar and Tolleima already talked with the golden ram, but they went downriver, so we haven't talked to them about what they learned."
"Oh, good! They thought we were spirits at first, I'm glad we have everything straight now. Did Tolhemia or Jovar say what was downriver, or are they just looking for the exit from the valley?"
Aury watches the dancing goatlings and smiles, bobbing along to the music as she talks.
"As I said, I haven't spoken to them. I actually heard from the goatlings that the group with Golden Ram met them on the way here. Apparently a the group with Tolheima and Jovar went to settle somewhere in some goatling village. We do know what is downriver though. First the goatling's lands then further along Humans and Dwarves. The goatlings have treaties with the humans and dwarves, but the other races are encroaching on the lands of the goatlings so they want help to make them stop. I think they thought we were sent by the spirits, not that we actually are spirits. Though they think Cryxial and Miyu are spirits I guess." Xanya goes over to her eidolon and strokes his side. "Oh, by the way, does any of you, or from your group speak Terran? Aury'rss, Nathan?"
Lotham watches the festivities passively, partaking in some of the mead and food, but remaining seated throughout the dances. I need to keep my head clear.
Aury shakes her head. "Sorry, not that I know of. Do the goatlings speak Terran?"
"Anyone know where the other groups are? I hope everyone was okay after the battle."
Lotham shakes his head at Aury'tss's question.
"The goatlings have their own language, we are learning it as I said, but we found a ring with a Terran inscription. Nathan's one group, Maks another, of course you and I are in different groups as well. We met Goivan's group out in the woods, he taught me something profound. 'The loss of any life is a tragedy, even if they were your enemy'. They barely managed to survive the attack, but we patched them up. Haven't seen them since though. That just leaves one group unaccounted for." Xanya shakes her head at not knowing where the last group went.
Nathan watches the proceedings with interest, but not taking part in any dancing, especially dancing around fires.
Upon Xanya mentioning a missing group he asks her, "Which group is missing? We should search for them and make sure they are alright. Has there been any word from the group of goatlings that attacked them? I have been so caught up in getting as much information as possible from the goatlings, I have neglected my brothers. I will have to ask for forgiveness for that."
"The group with Lump, Grobly, Tayanalla, Karkoran and Asheranthi. Just because I haven't seen them here doesn't mean theyare not here. How do you propose we find them anyway? We don't have much in the way of long range divination magic and Jovar is far away as well. Asking the goatlings might work. I am sure they'll be able to handle themselves though. None of the other groups suffered losses as far as I know, though I guess it was close for Goivan's group."
"There's always sky-writing," Teniel points out, "Though I don't think my message reached many of you."
"If you can find someone with a Comprehend Languages spell, that should solve the inscription."
"Grobly came by as we were tying up our prisoners. They had defeated their attackers and he was coming to our aid. I don't know where he went after that."
He looks at Dalang. "We saw the writing, although it did not occur to me until later that it was your doing. In truth I thought that powerful beings were watching events transpire and wrote the sky letters."
Xanya smiles. "Grobly came by? That's good. I guess all the groups are fine then. No tears for any of us then."
Then she looks over at Dalang. "We saw the sky writing as well, but we had pretty much figured out exactly the same thing as was in the message already by that time. We figured someone else had already gone to the goatling camp by then. We were on the way there, but got met by goatlings coming the other way. Comprehend languages is useful even if it is only one way, not as nice in this situation as your ability to share language of course. Nice work with the sky writing, quite creative."
Shaeyl had stood to the side letting Aury handle introductions.
I've been making solid progress on the language, it appears to have some roots in Sylvan. A few millennium of drift and isolation can do a lot to a dialect.
Shaeyl watches the dancing for a moment, the goatlings appear to have had no problem finding all of our various groups, and from what I can tell, attacking them all at about the same time. Ask them to track the missing group.
"It's just a Silent Image spell. Next time, I'll use bigger illusions, and bigger letters. Maybe cycle through one letter at a time. Once we find paper, we can use animal messengers."
"Xanya—Comprehend also lets you read all languages, and I believe you know the spell."
"Shaeyl—Asking the goatlings to track our friends could lead to further misunderstanding. We'll see if Jovar checks in, and if not, there's surely someone to the South who knows a spell for sending messages."
Maks returns to the group after a bout of dancing and swaying with her totem spear, "'Lots of tears, actually... cause lots of our new friends died." she looks to the others. "Oh... and Dwarven and Giant. It's got that, too. I didn't sense the Sylvan at all. Are you sure? It might just be that I was born knowing Sylvan so it'd just not sound right if it wasn't right."
Simon joins in their dancing. He really was both sad they had lost members to the misunderstanding and eager to foster new and better relationships with the young goats.
Simon conspires with Maks about trying to get Card to join them, hoping a pretty Kitsune would convince him to.
He will try to get Card to join in the dance along side him and Maks, hoping that at this volume he can feel the beat of the music, or at least copy Simon. He really is eager to help the deaf Kitsune get a feel for music.
"Yes, we saw the sky letters as we were already being escorted back to their earlier camp. It is sad that we killed them. I would not take back actions taken in self defense, though their necessity should sadden my heart. I can only hope we can successfully prepare the humans and dwarves for approach, so as to avoid more needless bloodshed."
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Tavros sniffs at the mash before almost violently pushing it away from himself, making a face. After gingerly sniffing the other food, he eagerly wolfs down his portion, almost chocking a couple of times in his haste to get on to the dancing.
Once ready, he enthusiastically joins the goatlings in their dance, stomping his hooves as hard as he can against the ground and charging towards the center only to back off as he was shown.
Xanya slaps her forehead. "Duh, how silly oh me, thank you Teniel. I'll get to prepare it right away." Whereupon she start pulling out various vials, hers and other ingredients and mixing them together in a jar.
She is busy doing this when Maks returns. Upon Maks pointing out that all the goatlings die Xanya starts to cry again, though through the tears she manages to get out. "Yes it's sad that the goatlings died, but how can they be our friends if we never knew them while alive?"
After Simon is done dancing she heads over to him and Cardau. "Let me see that ring again. I found a way to read the inscription." She holds out her hand again.
She still delays drinking the extract until the Golden Ram seems ready to speaking, though it'll last 20 minutes so she'll probably have time to listen and read the inscription in between.
As the various people sing and dance with the goatlings, eating food and perhaps some imbibing the potent mash, the night gets later. Tavros has a chance to show the goatlings what he's got with his nimble hooves, and the goatlings rally around him. The others make some goatling friends, and there is quite a large portion of you making good progress on the language. By comparing notes and taking the chance to work through new scenarios you learn quite a few more new words that evening.
After the Circle Dance of the Elements, things seem to quiet down as people prepare for the final Battle Dance. As it is set up some of the shamans and elders tell stories about ancient goatling heroes, and regale those who would listen with mythological tales.
Maks, while slightly inebriated (she hasn't had any more of the mash since the first two bowls), jumps at the chance to understand more of the goatlings' culture, and heads straight over to listen to the shaman with whom she shared languages (Barava?).
She was expecting something big for the finale, given how little had changed with the surroundings as the goatlings worked their spiritual, if not divine, dances.
Lotham also takes a seat and tries to grasp what he can of the goatling mythology.
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Simon with his new understanding of the goatlings language will sit and listen to them piece together the stories from what he knows, always having loved hearing stories. If Card stays with him, he'll transcribe what is said if he can't see the speaker.
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Bavari does tell a few of the stories, and he takes the time to translate them into Common as many of you gather around to listen to them.
One story tells the tale of a loan goatling warrior who rose to greatness through prowess in battle, but as he great stronger, so did his pride, and it was almost his undoing as he met a great giant. The giant turned out to be stronger and the goatling warrior hero, named Chavalis, was forced to flee in humiliation. Chavalis swallowing his pride asked his friends to help him defeat the giant, named Norg. With his friends, Chavalis was able to defeat the giant Norg, who surrended, but tricked the goatlings and smashed a hole in the ground that led to Hell. The goatlings fell in the hole. Apparently this tale leads to a series of other tales where Chavalis and his friends who all have special powers and abilities fight their way through Hell to return home.
The second tale talks of Immo, a wise goatling who travelled the world, seeking to understand all of the other races. As he travelled he learned their ways of battle so that one day he could protect the goatling people if they were attacked. Immo ends up falling in love with a goatling princess, and challenges the Chief in battle for the right to marry his daughter. Immo wins the fight and is allowed to marry the daughter, but the King banishes both of them from the lands. The two flee into the mountains and eventually live ascend into the sky to live in the stars.
You suspect most of the tales to have little truth to them, and there may be an attempt to tuck some sort of life lesson in these stories, but you suspect over time pieces have been added, removed, embellished or changed to suit the audiences, or any current trends among the goat people.
Bavari is about to start a new story when it appears the Battle Dance is about to begin.
Simon hands over the ring when Xanya asks about it, glad they might have some progress.
He also throughly enjoys hearing the folk tales.
He steps out of the way when they start their next dance, feeling it might not be appropriate to take part in this one.