Maks's ear flicks slowly with annoyance. "Your show proved nothing. I panicked and hid myself as well when the goats surrounded us." She said, offering the young girl a hand to help her up, expecting her to not take it. "Now, if you're finished frightening her and half of the town, do you think you could overlook that the girl is a few years younger, and see her for what she has to offer? She doesn't need to fight, despite her statement that she can hold her own, in order to be helpful. I can list three things she can do, immediately, that you cannot. Do not judge a fish on its ability to climb trees... especially when you have not seen it go near a tree."
Tavros is completely oblivious to the commotion, his ears too full of the happy screams of the half dozen or so children hanging off of him.
The girl takes Makoto's hand and ruffles her other hand through the soft fur. "Why does he have to be so creepy?" giving Teniel a pouty glare.
the shout made Lucina's head snap towards the source but seeing her friend's there she relaxed, trusting them to take care of it she returned to her mending.
"A lot of it is culture. Ask me to tell you the story of Jepetto and Pinocchio sometime. It's a lot like that, but in reverse." Maks said, hoping her on-the-nose joke would break the tension.
Lucina, the old crone next to you gives a phlegmy cackle "Eh eh eh eh."
"But we're not going on a journey of singing, or painting. There are many things I cannot do, but I weigh their usefulness against what I expect to see. We're going to protect some eggs, on an island where any of us could be attacked at any times by pirates. I'd rather not bring along any unexpected guests until I know we wouldn't need to worry about them dying from a single stray sword swing—and huddling on the ground in the face of danger instead of trying to run or block isn't a good sign."
Makoto, the girl smiles and several townspeople come closer and Ben also returns at that time. No one seems overly concerned, also having seen Teniel's illusions at the meet and greet.
Ben speaks to the group, but also look curiously at the teen girl and then also somewhat wide eyed at Tavros as the half ton minotaur spins about with the huddle of children... one misplaced hoof could maim a child or worse.
"Ummmm....We have a boat ready to take you to your destination. Perhaps Tavros would prefer to stay and watch our children for their parents." he smiles softly.
"I will name one that you are discounting. She can speak the language." She said as she turned towards Ben.
"Is it true that this girl has no family? No job, no ties? I believe she seeks to come along with us... But it is hardly her, or my, decision alone."
"In theory, as long as she is not too brave and the foes not too powerful, I could weave glamour to hide her from sight." She offers, "Albeit on short terms, not long."
Ben narrows his eyes but not in an unkindly way. "Avara, you know better, you cannot go with these people. They will be putting themselves in extreme danger. Your sparring with the other pupils does not qualify you to fight bloodthirsty pirates."[b] He holds up his hand as she is about to protest. Turning to Makoto. [b]"I am sorry. It is true, she has no parents, she lives with an aunt and an uncle. She is ... headstrong and imaginative. In time she will take on a special role, but she does not have the level of training needed to join you in your tasks despite what she may have have said."
The teen, apparently Avara, smolders but appears to respect Ben's quiet authority and merely stands there gritting her teeth mumbling "It's sooo boring around here.."
"Come along Avara, I have some non boring tasks for you."
To your group, "Please meet me at the docks when you have finished your current...activities." he looks at Tavros and takes Avara by the arm guiding her away as he tries to conceal a smile.
Well, Teniel's ready to head to the docks.
Seeing his friends start to pack up to go, Tavros slows down his spinning, pausing a moment to make absolutely sure he can walk without being dizzy even though he hadn't been spinning all that fast. As he waits, he continues to make a few more poses, lifting various arms and the dangling children on them. He then calmly moves towards his companions, some errant children still dangling off him.
"Time to go?" While play time had been fun, he was ready to buckle down and get some work done.
"I suppose." Maks says, looking after the two disappearing forms, one ear twitching slightly, as she moves to retrieve Lucina beneathe the tree.
Seeing the group approaching to retrieve Lucina, the old woman reaches toward her face and fumbles for a moment. She actually pulls out her bad eye, which you hope was in reality false, and places it in Lucina's hand cupping it securely. With her remaining eye she looks deep into Lucina's eyes croaking something "Dabogu." The woman rises and hobbles off disappearing around a corner.
The eye feels warm and possibly somewhat fleshy but doesn't feel like a real eyeball might. You aren't sure whether or not you want to open your hand and look at it for fear of what you might see, or worse that it will be looking back at you.
The group collects Lucina and the children follow at a distance, likely to provide an escort all the way to the harbor.
Dalang will try to calm Pamburu, who's likely never been at sea before and is still technically just a large kitten.
Lucina tries not to show her disgust at being handed an eye and gives a strained smile until the woman is out of sight. "What just happened?" She would try to wrap the eye in something and hopefully hand it off to someone else in the party.
The group arrives at the dock. There is quite a large amount of people here to see the party off. The boat they have for you is large outrigger style boat. There are about 10 rowers and they load some cargo and gear into it and then usher you aboard.
Ben and the other elders look on with quite a few of the people. Many children and women put flower leis about your necks. So much excitement and you haven't even done anything yet. You suspect that strange creatures from far off lands do not come here often and so the chance to celebrate and have something unique happen is something people look forward to.
Teniel shrugs. His neck is small, and it's more of a flower sash thing.
"Hopefully by the time I have returned, we'll be able to actually speak to the crowds." Maks says, giving Ben a doggy grin. "Hopefully, we'll see you sooner, rather than later."
Lucina happily accepts the flowers from the villages before boarding and once they were headed out she would give the gifted eye another inspection.
and casting detect magic.
Figuring that he'll probably have trouble getting the leis over his head, Tavros hangs them off of his horns. He then attempts to aid the workers in loading the boat. He'll then happily wave goodbye to his new children buddies as they sail off.
Lucina:
The eye has a faint aura of divination magic after you concentrate on it for a few rounds. You are unsure what it is, although you have heard of hags and witches with magical eyes. Surely that kindly old lady was no hag though....
Tavros:
The workers appreciate your effortless strength in loading the boat, and in short time everything is in order and the boat starts off.
---
The rowers make efficient time over the waves as the outrigger slices through the tropical seas. Everyone gets some seaspray on them although the sun dries it quickly only to be refreshed by the salty surf. Pamburu is not terribly happy, although he is a tiger and takes to the water a bit better than your average cat.
You are all surprised how swiftly the boat moves through the water and before long the shore is far behind. Within a few hours with the paddlers taking shifts, the boat approaches another island. Shortly the boat hits the beach and the rowers disembark and everyone hauls it up on shore.
They will rest a bit before returning to their island. They hand you a map of the island, a gift from Ben. They unload the supplies and some food and some basic tools and camping gear.
Island Map (Will link in header above too)
Lucina helps them unload the ship before heading to scout out the area without moving too far from the party.
Maks aids them as well, while Miyu ducks around quietly, trying to stay out from underfoot. When Lucina starts to head away, he moves with her... and Maks becomes the one who is leashed.
Teniel sits on a rock and whittles.
Tavros heads towards a tall tree and attempts to climb it to get a better look around.
It takes Tavros several minutes to climb the tree. He choose a tall one so once he gets to the top he can see the island slope upward as the inner parts of the island stick out of the ocean. He speculates the island may be volcanic in origin. The thick foliage covering the island seems to obscure the ability to pick out anything that isn't on the beach. Far to the south he seems to be able to see some smoke rising however after he watches a while. He can see the white and grey wisps against the darker canopy. (marked on map approximate area)
While Tavros climbs, Teniel remarks to the others. "We won't be able to guard all the egg grounds at the same time. Maybe we should figure out which is the largest cluster, and start there."
Tavros pauses, taking a moment to simply enjoy the beautiful scenery and the breeze in his fur. He takes a deep breath of the salty sea air before starting his climb down. If he spots any coconuts in his tree, he'll also grab a few to toss down into the sand.
He then makes his way back towards his companions. "I saw some smoke over there." He points. "It seems to be a fairly large island. I'm not sure how we're going to be able to protect it all. Maybe a lookout post to give us an early warning system? Although even then, by the time we figured out where the ship was heading, we probably wouldn't have enough time to actually get there."
"Smoke means people, though. Maybe we should head there first. Later, if we can build a watch tower, our eyes are better than any human's, and we can scan the horizon for ships."
"Smoke could mean trouble as well, either way it's a good place to start."
"It should only be a mile or two, right? If we walk along the beach, we can be there in half an hour. Tavros, do you want to lead?"
The group starts walking along the beach toward the smoke with Tavros leading. As they get nearer they pause again to get a view, with Tavros climbing another tree. He is able to report that it looks like a shipwreck, that a ship has crashed onto several large rocks, and was on fire. The fire has largely run itself out, perhaps doused periodically by crashing splashing surf, the general moist air, and the change in tides. Portions of the ship still smolder. Wreckage lies strewn about the beach and parts float partially in and out of the water, tossed about by the surf and moved by the tides depending on the time of day. At this distance it is difficult to tell if there are survivors, you are able to make out a few bodies you think.
Makoto immediately enters a sprint, and Miyu keeps pace, slightly ahead, when they spot the bodies. Her first thoughts are to lay her hands on every person (using her trait to stabilize) she encounters upon reaching the area.
Tavros also picks up his pace to match Makoto. "Do you think they're pirates or the victim of pirates?" He didn't really have anything to help with healing, so he instead keeps close to his other companions, trying to keep a lookout for people trapped under wreckage that Maks might miss, useful goods about to be washed out to sea, or people planning on attacking them. He briefly scans the sea for signs of other ships that may have attacked this one.
You reach the area dashing off from the others about 120' ahead, and arrive at the shipwreck, the twisted water logged bloated bodies are strewn about, clearly dead. The smoking ship lies on its side dashed against the rocks. Some furniture and other debris is on the beach, the two halves of the ship cracked apart in the middle.
Maks looks into the stern half of the broken ship and thinks she sees some movement in there. It is likely that people did not make it out of the ship as it crashed and there may be many bodies or wounded inside.
You could get to the front half of the ship from the sand. It is sort of wet all over, but on the map the sand squares are basically land. The light blue water is 1' deep approximately and the darker blue squares are 4' or deeper.
With some jumping, ropes or fancy acrobatics you could probably get to the back half of the ship without too much trouble, if you wanted to avoid the water, otherwise its only about a foot deep. The rocks are craggy and slippery though but a simple balance check would not be that hard.
"I don't know." She says to Tavros, her voice low.
Maks takes a moment to close her eyes and focus on her magic, before pointing to Tavros and Lucina.
"I think I see movement inside. It could be hostile." She whispers. "I'm going to go invisible. If I think it's safe, I'll whisper out to you."
Teniel rides ahead on Pamburu, pulling ahead of the others, but letting them catch up when he dismounts and checks out the scene.
He also calls out the word for "healer" in the local language, if he's had time to learn it, and attempts to skirt the water.
Lucina tries to keep up with Tavros and when Makoto speaks of heading inside the ship she sets up outside the space Maks enters and gets ready to attack anything hostile that comes out.
Teniel moves over to the ship area as Maks noted she saw movement within. He calls out 'healer' in the local tongue as Maks prepares to go invisible.
Teniel sees movement up in the mid deck of the stern of the broken ship. A person moans and lurches into view. Only you realize the person is covered in blood, and a piece of meat hangs from their mouth as if they have been recently feasting. Split seconds later you realize it isn't a person at all, as you see the dead eyes, long claws and nasty fangs. Some horrible fiend of the depths. It half roars, half screams in a hoarse gutteral pitch, and leaps from the ship to attack. Many more appear from the water, other levels and on top of the ship.
"Dammit..." She whispers to herself, but it carries through to the others by her spell. If he hadn't been impatient, she could have stabilized any survivors without alerting any enemies.
Tavros blinks in surprise at the creatures. "Those...aren't pirates?" He supposed they could have once been pirates. But they still weren't the human, normal pirates he had been expecting. What was going on here?